


Show Me

by cherryblossomseason



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: F/M, Rin is a badass, Slow Burn, Vampire Hunter Rin, len is a cocky little shit, rated M for language and some sexy scenes in the following chapters, vampire! Len
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:00:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23751205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryblossomseason/pseuds/cherryblossomseason
Summary: After Rin's parents were killed by a vampire when she was 10, two hunters adopted her and taught her how to hunt. She's now in college, where Len, a too confident of himself vampire, takes the same class as her. love and drama blooms as their lives get entagled.
Relationships: Kagamine Len/Kagamine Rin
Comments: 20
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

~Part One~

“ _But every once in a while, you meet someone who’s iridescent, and nothing else can compare_ ” ~ Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped.

Chapter 1

Kagamine Rin was a beauty by all standards. She walked into a small neighborhood café, immediately turning heads wherever she’d passed, and settled herself in a sofa next to a green haired cute looking girl opposing a blue haired attractive couple. They greeted her amiably just as an especially long pink- haired woman joined their table smiling.

To any onlooker she looked perfectly normal, petite frame, big ocean blue eyes and blonde hair cascading in waves and falling just below her shoulder, framing her face like a halo. What they didn’t know at first glance however, was that those delicate hands had killed, stabbed and shed blood, and her frame, despite being slight, carried immense hidden strength.

“It’s so nice to see all of you again, I’ve really missed you all over the break!” exclaimed the light blue-haired girl, Miku, while Kaito’s- her boyfriend- arm was slung behind her on the sofa to hold her close. 

“What’ve y’all been doing to pass the time?” asked Gumi, the green-haired one, casually slouching with headphones perched around her neck and her back against the wall, her legs crossed.

The group chatted aimlessly, catching up with each other, sharing stories of skinny dipping (Miku and Kaito obviously), binge watching shows on Netflix (Gumi) and knitting for her dogs “the cutest sweater” (Luka had 3 dogs back at home she’d always go on and on about and cry how she missed them every other day).

Rin herself just mentioned a short one day family trip to the next town ( _where there’s been rumors of people dropping dead with telltale bite marks on their corpses_ ), sightseeing ( _investigating, questioning close ones of the killed, finding leads_ ) and wrapping it all up in having dinner in a lovely small diner just between the two towns ( _trailed the bastard all the way to his home and Michelle gave her the honor of stabbing it in the heart herself_ ).

When the blonde was only 10 years old, her parents were murdered, in front of her eyes, by a monster, specifically, a vampire. She was named Meiko, brown hair and fiery eyes and dress. The vampire sunk her teeth into her unconscious parents’ necks and drained them of their blood, until every last ounce of life was seeped away…..

_Terrified out of her mind Rin could only sit hugging herself and stare. No matter how horrible the sight, she could not tear her eyes away from the scarring sight before her. Meiko, as she had introduced herself upon breaking into their house, tossed the body of her beautiful lively mother to the ground, which now lay on the floor next to the form of her formal, usually serious looking father. Both lay unmoving. Motionless. Dead… both her parents, they were both dead._

_Tears flowed freely from both her eyes, too scared to even make a sound she froze as the vampire’s eyes found hers and it smiled at her._

_“Why, hello, you small thing. Absolutely angelic little girl. I won’t make it hurt. At least not a lot….” She trailed off, smirking, fangs showing as she started making her way toward the corner where Rin was cowering._

_An obnoxiously loud booming sound came from the entrance of the house and both girls turned their head to watch what caused it- then everything happened all too fast, all at once:_

_A blood curdling scream pierced the air as Meiko’s body dropped to the ground, a wooden stake spearing her chest, while two strong hands wrapped her rather gently in their embrace. They belonged to a young woman with auburn hair and kind brown eyes._

_“My name is Michelle, What’s yours sweetheart?”_

_Rin tried opening her mouth to speak but only whimpers came out in rapid succession._

_“Jacob she’s hyperventilating!” the woman’s low voice called to the man standing above the once monster, sounding panicky._

_Immediately another pair of hands held hers and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Hey, I’m Jacob and this is Michelle. Everything is okay now. Look at me, don’t look behind me, focus on our hands. Nothing’s going to hurt you.” His voice was stern but not unkind, it possessed a surety and assertiveness of someone who was born to lead and be followed._

_It took a few minutes but eventually her breath normalized and she managed to utter her name for them._

_“Rin, that’s a beautiful name,” Michelle said. “We’re so so sorry we couldn’t get here a few minutes earlier…. We’re so….” Her voice choked and she averted her eyes._

_Jacob tightly wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. “We did what we could. We’re sorry it wasn’t enough.” He turned to Rin, “Do you have any relatives? Any people who you can move to live with?”_

_Slowly she shook her head_ no _._

Now 9 years later, Michelle and Jacob had raised her with care and love, teaching her the ways of tracking, hunting and killing vampires. She was 16 when she hunted alone for the first time which she did as spectacularly as the blonde prodigy did everything. She was a natural born hunter, possessing agility, speed and intellect rarely seen, but then again few where the things that didn’t come naturally to her. She was a great student, a charming and polite girl, and no matter where she was she found friends easily.

“Check this out,” Luka said, breaking Rin out of her reverie. She was holding her phone out for everyone around the table to peer into. A dimpled guy stared back at them from the screen, standing shirtless in front of a window that seemed to be inside their college’s gym. 

“His name is Sean, he’s been dm’ing me this past week, sending me pictures like this,” she blushed. “Isn’t he cute?”

Gumi took the phone out of her hand to look closer. “I know him, he has math with me. Always sits in the back with his friends making noises and snacking. Unbearable.”

“Hey! Don’t poop the party!” Miku exclaimed, snatching the phone from her hand. “He’s really handsome, and look at this body! Like wow! I approve Luka, good luck, hit that!”

Kaito sighed loudly. “Will we ever have another guy in our little party? My testosterone levels are dropping every minute, I’m afraid I’ll grow a boob one of these days.”

“You know we would, but whenever one of us befriends a guy Rin somehow ends up breaking one of his limbs. You know who to blame…” Gumi pointed out.

“Shut it! You know they always grope me one way or another… I’m so sorry dear friends, next time I’ll give my body over to them to do with as they please. All for the sake of your boobs Kaito. That’s how great a friend I am.”

They all laughed and passed the afternoon there, having desserts and cracking jokes until returning to their respective dorms. Rin shared hers with Miku. That arrangement was very comfortable since their schedules synched perfectly, and they were both neat and considerate of each other. Miku was the first friend Rin had had after enrolling in this college and she couldn’t have found a better one.

When it was time to go to bed, they each laid down and gossiped quietly until falling asleep.

Her adoptive parents had only been 21 when they took her in out of guilt, but for Rin the small age gap among them and their history together had only ever been a positive thing. She was now enrolled in college, taking English Literature, although the young huntress always had an ear out and an eye wide open for anything out of the ordinary or trouble calling.

She vowed to rid this world of as many vampires as she could.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's meet Len!

Overall it wasn’t a bad night, per se. The sex was mediocre at best though, and that’s only thanks to him being part of it (otherwise it would have been plain lousy).

She was a brunette, freshman and excited about life and the future and being in Len’s presence and center of attention ( _who wouldn’t be, about the latter_ ), he thought smugly.

Even if the sex was not over the top, the feast was; when he revealed his sharpened canines, she gave just the right reactions and high pitched screams in just the right places, exactly how he loved. Of course as he started sucking she’s gone limb from the mesmerizing effect it had. Survivors actually confessed that while they had their blood sucked the feeling was euphoric, dreamlike. It was not at all a bad way to die.

After disposing of the body he opened the door to the old house at the edge of town- now his house for the time being. Things like he was could never stay in one place for too long; things got complicated when people started getting wrinkled when you still looked underage, which technically he was- he was turned at 17.

By who? He had no idea, but then again most vampires didn’t. He didn’t even know his last name, considering the moment he had woken up he was crazed out of his mind with hunger and left home with a hurry to get some food in him, not in thought of looking for a bloody ID.

It didn’t take him a while to figure out what he was and he knew he could never go back home. Ever since then the vampire had been jumping from town to town, renewing the birth year on a fake ID he had acquired when such things became a necessity.

Currently he was Len Davis, enrolled in the local college, and majoring in English Literature. As usual, his good looks got him all the attention he needed to quietly feed as his heart desired and have fun while doing it- girls flung themselves upon him.

The blond laid back down in his bed, propping his head up on a hand as he recalled today’s- the first day in this college- events. This girl, Rebecca or whatever her name was, came on to him in Math, sitting herself next to him and showing off cleavage seductively. Slightly amused he invited her to have some fun in his house that night and both with pleased smiles on their faces for entirely different reasons departed for the rest of their respective schedules.

His next was a lecture in Eng-Lit and he entered in a good mood already. Scanning the room his eyes fell on a young woman sitting in one of the first rows, chatting idly with a blue haired woman having her hair in two long ponytails. What captured his eyes however was how utterly stunning she was, a fact he already noticed to not be only one taking notice of.

Sitting himself directly opposite her to have clear view, he already saw multiple curious heads turning their heads in said direction.

Seconds before the lecture started, a bold soul, encouraged by his friends, sat himself on the beauty’s other side and leaning a bit too close for comfort, tried butting in on the two friends’ conversation.

The blonde’s eyebrow jumped in irritation for a second but she recovered quickly when she took in the entirely average appearance of the red haired guy next to her. An obviously fake smile took place on her face.

Throughout the entire lecture the ginger slipped glances and occasional one-liners in her ear to which she seemed indifferent. At one point Len saw with slight revulsion the guy’s hand laying on her thigh, bare due to the skirt she was wearing at the moment- _this guy has no class_ , Len couldn’t help but cringe.

To that, surprisingly the woman smiled slightly and leaned into him, whispering something in his ear. _Was she actually into that?_

He quickly turned dubious however when he saw her blue-haired friend’s reaction- she was shaking her head, snickering, something mischievous evidently on her mind.

When the lecture ended, instead of walking away he lingered back for a while just out of curiosity- which he soon realized he did right.

The red haired guy was leaning expectantly against the door, probably waiting for the blonde beauty. A minute later she emerged from the lecture hall as well and her eyes kindly zeroed in on Suave Master. She gently took his right hand in hers, staring into his eyes with a smile- looking promising all right, but then everything happened all at once, like the flapping on a butterfly’s wings.

Her hands snapped his two first fingers a whopping 180 degrees back so they brokenly lay against the back of his hand, and he collapsed to the floor faster that you could say ‘she did it’.

Hooking her arm with her giggling friend’s the two girls continued down the hallway, leaving the bastard to writhe on the floor in agony as a crowd started gathering around to see the show.

“Oh Rin… they never learn.” Rin’s friend said smiling, and Rin, apparently, shook her head, her short waves of gold hair swinging around her face cutely.

Now, lying on his bed, he smiled to himself already knowing his next goal. He decided to try closing his eyes for a while- not because vampires needed sleep, but just because he occasionally, especially after a good meal, like resting his head to muse.

A scratching at his window made him open his eyes to the sight of a chubby tabby cat clawing at the glass which he let in. The tabby strutted haughtily to sit himself on his bed and graciously allowed Len to give him a few rubs.

Well, as Len said, it wasn’t a bad night at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our kids finally talk to eat other! it goes not bad at all

“Excuse me?”

Miku turned around, and had to blink multiple times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. This guy- this fucking guy- he looked like one of those perfect guys in boy bands who were mostly photoshopped, only this was real life. Right?!

Tall, lean, dimples showing even when he wasn’t smiling. A small patch of freckles only barely seen spattering his nose, his hair a golden mess as if daring any passerby to just reach and….

About to pinch herself she suddenly realized he was still staring at her waiting for an answer. “YES?” she cringed at how loud it came out.

The model had the decency not to mention it. “Do you happen to know where the Statistics class is?”

“Yes! I’m actually on my way there right now, just follow me. Is this your first year?” Obviously it was, because if such a Greek god was walking amongst them last year she’d have noticed, but she asked anyway to make conversation as they fell into step side by side.

“No, I’ve just moved into town a couple weeks ago. It’s my second year. I’m actually taking Eng-Lit with you, saw you yesterday in the lecture hall.”

“Oh good luck then! You probably don’t know anyone yet, would you want to sit with me and my boyfriend today?” _right, Miku, you have a boyfriend._

“That’d be nice, thanks!” he sounded genuinely grateful and Miku felt herself blushing. This boy was too pretty to be allowed.

“Are you a model?” the blue-haired girl put a hand to cover her mouth in mortification at her lack of brain to mouth filter.

Luckily for her he just laughed. “Nope, but thanks, I’m flattered.”

As soon as she and the apparently not-model entered the hall her eyes caught those of Kaito, who was already seated and waved her over. “It’s him there, let’s go.”

“Who’s this?” her boyfriend asked, gesturing with his chin toward the boy behind her, not maliciously, just out of curiosity.

“That’s- “she started and then stopped when she realized they haven’t even exchanged names yet. Her face heated for the third time too many in the past five minutes.

“Len. Len Davis, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m new around here, so- “he looked at her and she picked up where he left off.

“It’s Miku, and he didn’t know where the class was. He’s new in town, so he doesn’t have friends around here yet. I offered him to sit with us, it’s cool with you right?” she winked at her boyfriend pointedly, knowing he’d jump at the chance to have another guy in their friends group at last.

As expected Kaito’s eyes lit up. “Of course! I’m Kaito. Have lunch with us as well, feel free to stick by.

~ ~ ~

_This was even easier than I thought it would be._

Len was pleased with himself at how smoothly he managed to get into Rin’s close circle, all it took was some eavesdropping and finding a class that the two girls didn’t share.

As he and the blue haired couple were marching down the hallway toward the cafeteria they were all smiling, rather happy, even if for different reasons.

“Will Rin, Luka and Gumi eat with us?” the tall blue haired guy with the weirdly deep voice asked his girlfriend.

“Just Gumi and Rin, Luka only has afternoon classes today so she isn’t here.”

_So I finally get the chance to talk to Rin_ , he realized, trying to suppress a smug smirk. That was when he saw her: She was sitting next to a short girl with shoulder length green hair who had headphones slung over her shoulders and a sulky expression, resting her head on Rin’s shoulder with eyes half closed. Rin meanwhile was just messing around on her phone, oblivious to her surroundings. The blonde beauty didn’t even notice them coming until they were sitting down in her table.

When she raised her eyes they immediately fell on Len, who purposely sat himself directly opposite her. She questioningly turned her eyes to her best friend’s who in answer cleared her throat to catch Green’s attention as well.

“Guys, this is Len. He’ll be around for a while. Len, these are Rin and Gumi. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Rin because she bites-“ at that he looked Rin in the eyes with an eyebrow raised, leaning back in his chair and she returned the gaze with a challenging one of her own, not unkind. “And Gumi won’t listen to you talking most of the time but don’t turn it against her, she just has brain damage from playing video games.”

“Shut up,” Gumi protested but without real bite to her words.

The lunch passed comfortably. He and Rin’s eyes kept meeting over the food, as if gravitating towards each other- blue locking on blue.

The friends were teasing and poking at each other like friends of years do, and Len decided to keep back from joining and focus on listening, gauging out each of their personalities;

Miku was bubbly and loud, the sort of girl who would dance on the bar half naked when she drunk and be the life of the party.

Kaito was a quiet sort of guy, but not in a shy way, he was evidently content with listening to his girlfriend ranting and going on and on with an adoring look in his eyes. Also as the only guy among girls he was a bit awkward.

Gumi was obviously the definition of a nerd, the sort of person who didn’t so much make friends as said friends just took a liking to her and latched on to her until it inevitably became normal to stay. She was cynical but he found most of her contributions to the conversation to be rather amusing.

And lastly, there was Rin, his center of focus. Whenever their eyes danced in each other’s path a lazy smile crossed her face, her gorgeous blue orbs shining. Despite not being too talkative she was an essential part of the table; giving the right responses and gestures that pleased all of her friends the most. Her face, despite being very kind and relaxed, seemed much older than she probably was, as if she had been through an experience that made her instantly age 10 years when she was younger. When she looked at people it always seemed as if she was seeing into their soul rather than looking at their faces, her eyes strangely melancholy. 

“Aren’t you in Literature with us?”

His eyes snapped toward Rin, not expecting her to engage him in conversation. He smiled, “Right. I saw you breaking that ginger’s finger, you know.”

Kaito burst out laughing. “I’ve heard about that around! I don’t know why I didn’t immediately realize that was your doing.” 

Rin looked away coyly. “Yea well, he touched where he shouldn’t’ve. I expect you and I won’t have that problem, right?” She winked at him, smiling, and his breath just about stopped.

“God no, I need that finger.”

She chuckled. “I expect we’ll be on good terms then.”

“There, there,” Miku was patting her boyfriend’s back who seemed ready to burst in tears.

“I’m okay, I’m just, so happy, I was waiting so long for this.”

Gumi snorted and they all shared a laugh. Len was feeling optimistic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please comment to let me know what you think :)


	4. Chapter 4

Everyone woo-ed and aaah-ed as the cute brunette waitress left their table, winking naughtily after slipping a small note in Len’s palm.

Len, looking smug, shoved the note carefully in his jeans’ pocket.

The gang were sitting in a nice café off-campus, in the cool Tuesday afternoon breeze. For once they all had a free evening, and even Luka could attend and met Len for the first time.

“Will you really call her?” Miku exclaimed, sounding amazed.

The blond shrugged, as if not quite understanding the question. “Of course, it’s just sex. She literally offered, I mean, who wouldn’t call.”

This was answered by a few giggles and a few mortified blushes. Rin was surprisingly in the latter group.

“I mean, we’re all adults and we’ve done this, right?”

Luka snickered mischievously, “well you’d be surprised, but our green and blonde friends here, have in fact, not done it,” she yelped as a balled napkin was tossed and only barely missed her face, followed by Gumi mumbling angrily under her breath.

His eyes nearly bugged out. “For real? How come? You’re both…. Attractive women… of age and everything,” he worded awkwardly.

“I, personally, am gay AF, and I haven’t found a girlfriend yet, and Rin wouldn’t fuck me no matter how many times I ask.”

Rin chuckled, “I’m sorry Gum, maybe one day. Don’t lose hope.”

Len turned to Gumi. “You’ve never been interested in a guy?”

“Nope.”

“Not even slightly?”

“Not one tiny bit. As gay as they come.”

Len, who was sitting directly opposite Gumi, suddenly stood up and planted both his hands on Gumi’s chair’s armrests. Everyone froze.

“What if an unreasonably attractive guy did this?”

Gumi visibly swallowed, trying to keep her gaze on Len’s blue hypnotizing one. “I still wouldn’t’ve.”

“And if,” he leaned even closer in, his lips hovering precariously over hers, and just last minute, when it seemed like he would actually capture her lips, his head changed direction minutely to ghost over the shell of her ear. By now she was as red as a tomato and barely breathing. He could smell the blood flowing into her face, hear it pumping, see the goosebumps spreading over her neck. “If he did this?” he whispered in his bedroom voice in her ear so only she could hear.

It was only a second before Gumi loudly ‘yaaaaaaa-ed’ at the feel of his breath on her ear and shoved him away, her face redder than a tomato.

“See? No one is 100% gay. Sexuality is very fluid.” Leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips, he sneaked a side glace at Rin and was pleased to see her ears red. She was sitting in the seat next to Gumi so she got a pretty close-up show.

“Dude! You broke Gumi,” Kaito said with no real bite.

“You can’t just steal girls’ hearts like that, damn”, Luka stared at him with a dreamy look in her eyes and he winked at her. She did a swooning gesture and he laughed.

“But you Rin?” he turned to her, genuinely curios. She had the looks to get any guy she so wished to get into bed with her with a mere beckon of her finger. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

Before she could answer Miku jumped in, “everyone wants her, but she frightens them away! She’s so violent.”

“I just haven’t found anyone I really liked, it’s not a crime, you’re acting like I kick them all in the balls….”

“You just break their fingers, “Len said teasingly.

“Only if they deserve it! How would you feel if someone just up and grab your thigh just like that?”

“Hmm…” he pretended to consider. “Are we talking about a pretty blonde girl, or a warty creature?”

Rin just sighed but he could see she was holding back a smile. “You’re impossible, never mind.”

“Is everyone enjoying themselves? The food is okay?” They all turned to see the brunette waitress leaning over their table, asking everyone but looking at just Len.

“We definitely are enjoying ourselves,” he answered suavely, making sure to smile at her invitingly. He was planning on fooling around with her that night, but not feeding. After all, he only ate last week so he wasn’t hungry yet (vampires only really needed one body a month to be satisfied even if he usually liked to indulge himself more often.)

The blond was momentarily startled by the lack of desire to feed on her, this wasn’t usual for him- but he found he was actually quite content with how things were at the moment, and didn’t want to have to leave too soon after having left a trail of bodies behind as usual.

He felt oddly at peace in the strange colorful gang that was sitting around the table with him. Although he knew it wouldn’t last forever, he decided to let it last at least a while longer, after all he had eternity before him, so where’s the rush?

Sooner or later they would start suspecting the little things; why he never seemed to eat or drink anything other than at best a cup of coffee (“I already ate” won’t cut it forever); or why he never looked a day older than 17 (despite allegedly being already 20); or the way his skin was always porcelain smooth, with not a blemish or a scar to show there once was one.

~~~

It’s been two weeks since the start of their second year, and Rin has been returning to an empty home for three now.

Once a week Michelle and Jacob would call her to make sure she was alive and tell her a fascinating story of a vampire they killed in a most heroic way and add in unnecessary theatrics that always made her laugh.

Michelle and Jacob never stuck around for too long, always looking for the next adventure and next place to see. They were still very young, only 30 years old, and very much in love with each other and with adrenaline. They didn’t ask to raise a child but did so out of kindness and mercy and Rin never held her lonely nights against them. She always had everything she needed; they never failed to leave her more money than she could need- even though she rarely used it. As soon as she turned 16 she got a part-time job waitressing in a café across the street from her home.

She was on a full scholarship in her college thanks to her outstanding grades, and only used the money to get some decent food and other mundane spendings like clothes. All other income went into savings for her future.

When she was 13 the blonde asked her adoptive parents how they had enough money to live if they didn’t have a job and all they did was laugh and tell her not to worry about it. She did worry about it though, until she was 15 and found out that when Jacob’s mother had died she left him such an absurd amount of money, one couldn’t spend it in 3 lifetimes. Apparently she was a CEO of a large company and before she died she had passed all her money and her company to her only son, whose first job in the company had been to sell the company and earn another even more wildly absurd amount of money.

She pushed open the door of ‘Sunny’ café and went straight into the back room, smiling briefly at her boss IA and the bartender Gakupo who were standing behind the counter, engaged in conversation. They both waved and smiled warmly at her.

In the back Room, Oliver, the bus boy, was standing and washing the dishes and Rin greeted him as well while taking her apron from the rack and putting it on.

It was a particularly hot December day which left her no choice but to wear a short jeans and simple V-neck t-shirt. She usually never went out with such a revealing attire due to the unwanted attention it garnered, but she refused to let it make her melt her ass off.

“How was your week Oli?” she asked her favorite coworker. Oliver was only 16 and still in high school and they’ve been working together for a year now. She felt like he was the younger sibling she’s never had.

“Meh…”

“Meh?”

“Yea…”

“Will you talk or do I have to beat it out of you?”

He pouted. “It’s okay, really. But I’m failing Math and dad says if I fail again he’ll throw me out.” He tossed a wet towel to the floor in anger and his pace of talking only got faster the longer he talked. “I just don’t get it, all these numbers and our teacher is shitty at explaining and only ever talks about her chihuahua, like, I don’t care about your chihuahua Mrs. Edelstein. Teach me what I need to know to pass those darn tests.”

Rin was a bit taken aback by the sudden venting. “Oli, you know I can always tutor you, right? You can come over whenever and I’ll read it over with you.”

His eyes widened and welled up in tears. “Will you really?”

She laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, dragging him along with her out of the back room to the front of the café. “Of course. Come now, I saw some tables needing to be cleaned out.

Oliver was a small kind of guy with messy sand-colored hair and big baby-blue eyes that made you want to cuddle him and never let the horrors of this world touch him. They were approximately the same height, him only a few centimeters taller than her, and just when they exited to the front, her still stringing him along with her by the shoulders in a tight half hug, a familiar welcome voice whistled at her.

“Someone turn on the air conditioner, it all of a sudden got so hot and steamy in here! Those legs should be outlawed!”

She burst out with a laugh that died in her throat when she turned to her blue-haired best friend with a big smile and was surprised to see Len next to her, carrying both of their school bags.

She turned to Oli, and wiped the unshed tears form his eyes. “I’m gonna hang out with my friends for a bit, we’ll keep talking about it when we get off work.” She smiled and messed up his hair to his protest before departing in her friends’ direction.

When Rin got to them Miku hugged her tightly and she smiled at Len who for some reason had a strange expression on, but still returned the gesture.

Len was hanging around them for almost two whole weeks now. She still didn’t know exactly what to make of him; he was gorgeous by all standards, the sort of guy everyone would wish they could hang out with even if for a little while just to say proudly he was their friend. He wasn’t loud or rude, always polite and gentlemanly- even now he was carrying Miku’s bag for her.

Not once in those two weeks had he made a move on Rin or even touched her at all but every once in a while when they would all hang out their eyes would meet briefly and she could feel something almost tangible passing between them. That gaze was heavy and intentful and honestly unnerved her a bit for a reason she couldn’t pinpoint.

She shook it off. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Study session. English Lit. If you find you have a spare minute join us!”

As if on cue someone called out an ‘excuse me’ and Rin dashed off towards the customer, leaving the two to sit themselves and open their notebooks.


	5. Chapter 5

“I personally think Lord Tennyson is lamenting about how we spend our lives just sitting around instead of taking action. Just talking about doing instead of doing for real, y’know?”

Len hummed noncommittally, not quite managing to put his heart into learning when Rin was walking around with these shorts, serving for a table of 3 loud hormonal college students.

The rowdy group kept pestering her, calling her over and over for no reason most of the time. He kept expecting her to snap at them or worse, but he turned more and more stunned by the second. With every call she approached their table even _friendlier_ than before. This just wasn’t right.

Thanks to his enhanced hearing he could make out their conversations both when she was and wasn’t present;

“Dude she’s so hot like wtf,” exclaimed a guy wearing a hat backwards, like it was still 2014. He probably thought he was so cool, Len internally cringed.

“I know right!? Call her again maybe she’ll give us her number,” answered his friend, who was a bit tan and so tall he could barely fit in the normal-sized café chair.

_As if she’d give you anything but a kick in the balls._

What pissed Len off the most was that these guys weren’t ugly. They were the popular sort, the jokesters of every school, moderately attractive but obnoxious in character. 

“Yea, how can I help?” the beauty arrived at their table, carrying an empty tray but wearing a lovely smile despite it being about the fifth time in the last 10 minutes.

“Well, maybe you can get us… er… ice, please?” The third one improvised in a stroke of ‘genius’.

“Or you know something with 10 or so digits?” the tall one jumped in, boldly and received awed looks from his friends at his bravery.

To Len’s astonishment Rin actually _laughed_ , and a genuine laugh too, that bell chime that was very nice on the ears, and covered her mouth with her hand shyly. “I’m sorry guys, I don’t think there’s something with that many digits on the menu. I’ll be right back with your ice though,” she said, turning around and leaving.

They were all blushing like school girls and the one with the hat made a casual “look at that ass damn”, which made Len want to flip their table over, or even use his abilities more creatively.

“She’s great at this, isn’t she?”

He snapped his head back to Miku, immediately feeling bashful for not listening to her for a while.

“Sorry. Yea she is, they’re honestly nasty, I don’t get how she’s that nice to them, this isn’t really much like her, is it?”

“Well, this is her waitressing persona, you can bet she’s gonna get a giant tip when they leave. They leave feeling so happy that a hot girl was nice to them, she’s happy for getting a fat tip, her manager is happy that everyone is happy. She has no reason to throw punches you see.” The blue-haired girl explained matter-of-factly.

Rin heavily sat herself down in the chair next to Len who was opposite Miku. “God I can’t wait for them to leave.”

“Now now, that’s no way to talk to such doting customers. I think your feeling isn’t mutual,” Miku chastised.

Rin cringed abashedly and murmured a ‘gross.’

“Rinrin, can we please have coffee?” her friend ordered and Rin nodded and turned to Len.

“Do you want some as well, Len? On the house, obviously.”

“Thanks, just a black coffee. But Rin,” he stopped her just as she was about to leave. “Please remember we are customers as well so you have to use your service voice and smile on us as well. Otherwise it’s discrimination.”

The beauty raised her eyebrows and gaped at him, unable to hold in an incredulous chuckle. “You got that, Customer-Sama,” she joked, adding a half-bow for good measure and leaving.

He smiled to himself. He was really starting to like this girl.

“Len?”

He turned to Miku, prompting her to ask her question.

“Do you like her?”

When it took him some time to answer she added hastily, “sorry if I’m crossing a boundary here, I know we might still not be close enough to talk about our feelings like that, but she’s my best friend and I was just wondering. Feel free to not answer, of course.”

“No,” he quickly answered when she started rambling. “It’s okay. I would have answered faster but I really don’t have an answer for that. Coz I don’t know myself. I think I might.” And he meant it, he knew he wanted to have Rin, but he was still quite unsure as to what for. He didn’t do relationships, so it wasn’t like he wanted to date her. Did he want her for sex? Well, obviously but he felt like he wanted something more that he couldn’t quite name yet.

Miku looked down grimly. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to like her, to be honest with you. We’ve been close for a year now and she’s never been with anyone like that. God, do they all try, but she has these walls around her, she never lets anyone in. Not even me.”

“Not even you? What do you mean by that?” he asked, bewildered at her odd phrasing.

“It’s just, she never told me anything really personal about her, like friends do. I always spill my heart out for her, and consult in her, and she always listens and gives the best advice, but it never goes the other way around. And it drives me crazy, frankly. Sometimes she gets this really sad look on her face like she’s stuck in a bad trip, and I pester her and try to get something out of her, but she never yields. She’s so emotionally constipated,” she added in, chuckling a bit to herself despite her wistful tone of voice. 

“I’m sure it’s not that she doesn’t trust you, it’s probably she doesn’t like opening up. What could it even be anyway to make her as sad as you say?”

“I have no idea but her life is so weird. Turned out she’s moved around a lot during her school years because of her parents, and switched a lot of high schools and stuff so she couldn’t make many friends anywhere. Also what’s up with her parents? They’re literally never home, she’s always alone, and they’re also so young, they have maybe 10 years between them. She’s not theirs for real, she can’t be.”

Miku stopped abruptly. “Sorry, I’m rambling again. It’s just this girl is such a mystery to me and I wish she’d talk to me.”

“It’s okay,” he reassured. He didn’t thank her, despite wanting to- he was trying to collect some more information about her and Miku just shared more than he thought he’d acquire for a while. “She’s my friend too now, it’s not like I don’t care.”

“Yea… anyway don’t make a stupid move on her, you know, she really hates it when guys do that. If you want her to like you back you gotta make her trust you first.”

He chuckled, “yea, I figured. Don’t worry about it.”

“Beloved customers, I hereby bestow upon you your hot beverages. I do heartily hope you will take pleasure in drinking them.” Rin placed the coffees in front of them, smiled toothily and left.

Miku grinned at her retreating figure and took a sip of her probably tooth rotting sweet Frappuccino.

They returned to their Lord Tennyson poem but Len couldn’t help sneaking glances at the cheerful blonde waitress dashing around the small café, and he could swear that whenever he did, she did too, as if they couldn’t really keep their eyes off of each other.


	6. Chapter 6

At approximately 2 am, as Len was reading a book perched on his lap, he sneezed.

~ ~ ~

When Len entered the lecture hall for their Wednesday’s 9 am English Literature class, the first thing he noticed was that neither Rin nor Miku were present yet. His clock showed 8:55. _Suspicious._

He sat himself at their usual spot regardless, and seconds before the class was about to begin, Rin burst through the door, looking haggard and only mostly awake. The professor, as usual already seated and staring at his laptop 10 minutes before the class would start, barely spared her an uninterested glance before standing up and starting on the new subject.

Len raised an eyebrow at her worn-down state as she sat wordlessly next to him and leaned slightly to say in a hushed voice in her ear, “you look like you slept soundly last night.”

She grimaced and carded her fingers through her messy hair to comb some order into it while leaning a bit closer as well. “Like a baby.”

“Until the hellhounds turned up.”

She rubbed her hands over her barely-open eyes and button nose and leaned her head even closer to him, as if it lolled to the side from sheer fatigue and not on her own volition. “More like a drunk Miku and a passed out Kaito at our door at 3 am.”

Len cringed. “That must have not been easy.”

She was sitting so close to him by now, her head almost resting on his shoulder and he was rather enjoying their proximity while they were whispering to each other like that.

“You have no idea! Apparently she raised some real hell, stripped half naked, danced on the table”- His nose twitched once again, as if recollecting a memory- “Kaito had to drag her out of there but they were both so unbelievably drunk he could barely walk himself…. He legit walked her to our door, forgetting he isn’t even allowed to enter the girls’ dorms- lucky for him no sane professor was awake at this ungodly hour.”

Now her head actually did rest on his shoulder and she didn’t even seem to notice. A big yawn left her mouth as her eyes fell shut.

“Of course I couldn’t leave him outside in the corridor dead to the world… I walked him to his dormitory, woke up his roommate- god he was heavy. When I came back to our room Miku wouldn’t stop throwing up and I had to drag her to bed. I didn’t know a girl so thin could be so heavy when she’s unconscious….”

He only ‘hmm-ed’, trying not to laugh and shake her when he could feel her starting to fall asleep on his shoulder.

Out of the blue she straightened up in her chair, staring at him wide-eyed with her face reddening. “I’m so sorry”, she half-yelled, a bit too loud, which earned her an unsatisfied look from the professor and a few fellow class mates.

He smiled at her pleasantly, “It’s okay, always feel free to use this pillow”, he patted his shoulder amicably.

She covered her face with her hands and let her head fall back. “This is so embarrassing. Let’s pretend this didn’t happen and listen to class now.”

He chuckled. “No promises.”

During the entire lecture Rin was dozing on and off next to him, but that gave him some time to study her face up close for a change. She really was like a well-crafted painting; plump pink lips, long fair eyelashes casting shadows on rosy cheeks, smooth skin. Every once in a while she would give out a soft whimper when she was shaken into consciousness by loud noises from around.

He found that the more he was around her the more he felt the urge to touch her, to hold her. Even now he wanted to cover her ears to block out any noise that could disturb her slumber. He’s never felt protective of someone like that and she wasn’t even doing anything to cause it.

When the professor ended the lecture he tapped her on the shoulder tentatively. “It’s time to get up sleeping beauty.”

“mm… just a second,” she mumbled sleepily, evidently not intending in the slightest to really get up in a second, or even 15.

He boldly made a decision to pinch her waist to give her a tickle and she bolted upright and into a standing position with a shriek so quickly he had whiplash.

“What the FUCK,” she half yelled and covered her mouth quickly when she noticed they were still in the class- now the only ones left- and his uncontrollable laughter at her overreaction.

“Sorry, I had to wake you up somehow”, he said in between laughs, not sorry in the least.

She hugged herself, covering her waist and in a timid voice let out a “dude… don’t ever do that again…”

He put his arm over her shoulder to drag her out of the classroom but she protested for a second. “Come, I promise I won’t do it again,” he coaxed soothingly and she gave up and followed.

As soon as they got out of the classroom and he drew his arm back, a tall brunette showed up from around the corner and upon spotting him immediately marched purposefully toward him. 

Rin hadn’t noticed yet the figure walking towards them and he only had time to raise his eyebrows in surprise before the brunette grabbed his face and planted a full-on open-mouthed kiss on his lips, her tongue fighting to get in his mouth but when he didn’t open up for her she detached their lips with a loud wet pop, her hands still holding his face.

“I didn’t get a chance to properly thank you for this weekend,” she said in a coy tone unbefitting the situation, and winked at him, planting another peck on his lips before departing.

Still a bit stunned but not disappointed he suddenly remembered Rin was still standing next to him and immediately turned to look her but when he did he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

She was openly gaping at him like a fish, visibly shook. He couldn’t discern any emotion on her face though but before he had time to pry further into her odd reaction she mumbled a weak “sorry, I have to… er… go somewhere. See you,” and vanished down the corridor.

He stayed staring at her retreating figure, feeling more confused than he had in a very long time. For some unexplainable reason, the vampire was feeling like he did something wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> where i live when someone sneezes it means he was right about something, so i did this funny thing when he sneezed in the middle of the night when miku was dancing half naked on the bar somewhere, like the first impression he had of her. anyway as always, thank you for reading and i'd love if you left a comment with your thought on how you find this fic so far :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things are heating up!

~Part Two~

“ _Maybe we feel empty because we leave pieces of ourselves in everything we used to love._ ” ~r. m. drake.

Chapter 7

Len pushed open the twin glass doors of ‘Sunny’ café followed by Kaito and Gumi, and immediately his eyes searched for Rin.

It was a Friday afternoon, and they were all on their way back home from their last class of the week. Their schedules lined up nicely with each other and his friends felt like grabbing a cup of coffee together and visiting Rin, who had no classes on Fridays, in her shift.

Just a minute after they sat themselves down in a low table near the entrance, Rin got out of the backroom, carrying an empty tray in her hand and looking bored out of her mind.

When her eyes were yet to notice them, the door slid open again to let the young sand-color-haired boy Len saw there the last time he was over emerge from the back room as well. Before Rin could fully turn in his direction his hand shot out, quick as a lightning, to pinch her on the side, causing her to shriek and jump into the air.

Bursting in laughter she swatted her tray against his chest and ran in the other direction, still shrieking, while he started good-naturedly chasing her around the café, wiggling his fingers in the air threateningly.

Len had a flashback to the seriousness with which Rin had told him to never tickle her again just that week and he couldn’t help but feel the green flower of jealousy bloom in his chest.

A short woman with extremely long blond hair tied in a ponytail in the side of her head cleared her throat to catch her misbehaving employees’ attention.

Rin immediately ducked behind the bar to clutch her manager’s skirt in desperation, still giggling, to plead with her, “Neru-chan! Please make him stop!”

At that moment the boy arrived behind the bar as well and gave out an evil chuckle. “No god will save you now.”

Rin shrieked again in fright when Neru, obviously at her limit with those two, yelled over Rin’s pleas of help “no god, but customers waiting for you in table 3 will!”

Both employees straightened their back in a hurry, evidently embarrassed, to check out the newcomers but both sighed in relief when they saw it wasn’t some fussy self-important old couple who would give them hell, but Rin’s friends, who were regarding the scene in amusement.

“You’re shitty help, no tip today”, Gumi called out and Rin answered with a loud “God what will I do without your 2 dollar bill.”

~ ~ ~

That night they were all skyping together from their respective houses. Rin was lazily perched on her bed, holding her phone in front of her face. Luka was in the middle of telling them about a date she had had that day with a guy from her criminology class and Rin was starting to doze off. It was nearing 1am and she had to wake up at 7am that morning for her shift.

“Did you guys hear about that girl who is missing?” Kaito’s deep voice pierced through her sluggish mind and shook her awake so she was more attentive to the conversation.

_Missing girl?_

“Yea!” Luka exclaimed, “She went to our college and they can’t find her for three weeks now. Apparently she only attended the first day, then never showed up again.”

“Poor girl’s parents must be scared out of their mind,” Miku said in a melancholy tone.

“Just crazy that this sort of thing happened here, I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life and nothing ever happened here, not even a dog gone missing,” Gumi wondered out loud. “Then suddenly this 18 year old girl is vanishing off the face of the earth one bright day, and not just this town but the entire country is going crazy.”

“Pfft…” Kaito sneered in disdain. “Look, this sort of thing happens all the time in other places. These parents, forcing their daughter to go to college, probably to a major she doesn’t even want, she goes the first day, realizes she hates her life, then runs away without telling anyone coz she’s so brave and crazy or whatnot….”

Miku snickered. “Wow babe, I didn’t realizes you and Rebecca were so close. You know her so well.”

While the other four started arguing, the only two not participating in the conversation were Rin and Len, but Rin didn’t notice the other’s silence as she was somewhere else at the moment.

It was the middle of the night on Friday, and she was alone. All alone. Her parents weren’t with her. While she stared at her desk, she wasn’t seeing a desk but something that made her heart beat faster and her chest ache. She fought the urge to yell out at Kaito that sometimes, when people disappeared from others’ lives, it wasn’t from choice.

~ ~ ~

This Saturday morning found Rin sitting alone in the kitchen of an empty house, nestling a cup of black coffee while fighting fatigue off of her tired blue eyes.

It has been almost a month since Michelle and Jacob had left, and every three days they’d call to say how they were really on their way back this time, which would always be followed with another call the day after to say that actually, it might take a while longer.

When the blonde was younger and they were forced to drag her along with them wherever they went, she had hated it, had wanted more than anything to just settle in one place. Now that they did- more like she did- she found she didn’t exactly like the second option either, as it was very lonely.

Rin fought the loneliness off by sleeping with Miku in the dorms during the week, it also proved a lot more comfortable to adjust to her classes schedule that way, but on weekends Miku left to her home in the next town over so Rin had no choice but to return to the empty space.

She was so fed up with spending the weekends alone and making her own food which she was usually too lazy to put much effort into.

This was one of the bad days; the ones when no matter how many times you toss and turn in bed, sleep wouldn’t come without colorful nightmares, where blood-red was the dominant color. When everything suddenly reminds you of lost loved ones, and you smell phantom frangrances of a favorite dish your dead mother used to make you. When you can’t focus on a single thing without your eyes welling up in tears.

She needed a distraction, at any cost, which for her always entailed consumption of alcohol. It used to happen so often when she was younger that she now had this crazy tolerance that wasn’t too common or good for a 19 years old girl to have.

Yesterday when skyping, they all made plans to meet up at a party that took place that night in a house just down Rin’s street. Some college senior with crazy rich parents who were almost as absent as Rin’s, threw house parties almost every Saturday but Rin usually didn’t attend those since she found the company present unpleasant. 

Since she lived so close by and had a large house, she offered the gang to crash at her place when they left the party and they all happily agreed. She had offered it enthusiastically, happy to not sleep home alone for a change, but thanks to her current state she was having second thoughts. Who knew which state she’d be in after tonight’s party. And probably an entire bottle of vodka. 

She spent the day pacing around, trying to find things she can clean, anything to keep her hands and mind busy. Once the house was spotless, she went for a run, after which she made her third cup of coffee for the day. She usually liked her coffee with milk but today didn’t call for any sweetness. She relished the bitter taste in her mouth, maybe unconsciously yearning for something more bitter than her own life to dull the throbbing ache in her soul.

When it was finally 9pm and Miku arrived in her door as the two decided to arrive in together, she couldn’t be more relieved despite being at that point half zombie.

“You don’t look too good Rinrin…” Miku gnawed on her lips in worry after taking her ghastly form in.

“Couldn’t sleep very well last night, nothing to worry about,” she gave her best friend the best smile she could muster, hoping it looked cheerful but really knowing that it did not.

“Let’s go upstairs to put some make up on you,” Miku urged in pity, pushing her upstairs.

Miku was dressed in a sequined blue dress, the shortest her boyfriend could live in peace with, showing off her curvy figure and bringing out her bright eyes and hair. She really knew how to dress up for things so Rin let her choose her outfit with no protest.

She dressed her up in a white tight backless top she found in one of her drawers - Rin swore she never even knew she had that- and short jeans with matching white boots to finish the look.

Miku covered the bags under her eyes with make-up to the best of her abilities and applied a thin layer of gloss to her lips. Rin had to admit she did a pretty good job of dolling her up, as if she needed more attention than she usually got.

“Now to complete the transformation from emo Rin to hot Rin you have to smile!”

Rin pulled the corners of her mouth even lower just to piss her off and earned a “bitch” from Miku to which she replied by taking her friend’s arm to hug it to her chest and saying “your bitch.”

Miku smiled at her warmly with eyes that saw more than they let on, as always seeing exactly how she was genuinely feeling, and pinched both her cheeks. “My best bitch.”

~ ~ ~

When Len walked up to the fancy looking house he breathed through his teeth in annoyance. He could hear the music while driving from two blocks away, and it wasn’t even music worth playing at this volume- just shitty current pop.

This entire street looked as if it belonged to filthy rich people who had swimming pools in their backyard and never enough kids to enjoy those properly. Rin must have been loaded to live in this street; not that Len had financial problems himself, considering he’s had a century and a half worth of savings. He just had to wonder what her, according to Miku, absent parents did for a living.

It was almost 11:30 pm by now. They made plans to be there around 9:30 but he preferred to be fashionably late. He liked arriving to his parties when everyone was already thoroughly drunk. Considering he couldn’t even get buzzed no matter how many bottles he gulped down- probably having to do with how he didn’t exactly have a bloodstream for it to travel up- he didn’t see a point in arriving while everyone was still sober and building up to their fun state.

The first thing the vampire noticed when he entered was that the house was packed with drunk hormone crazed college kids and that it was huge. He couldn’t even see the edges of the living rooms, let alone where the kitchen began. The ceiling was low and the walls were littered by colorful fairy lights that bathed the room an eerie, intimate sort of air.

The second thing he noticed, was how quickly eyes were drawn to him. Being a vampire surely had its perks in how his presence could never be ignored. Eyes were naturally drawn to him, even without his natural good looks, which was an asset helpful to easily lure prey in.

Women and men as one were checking him out up & down in his blue button up that was mostly unbuttoned and black jeans, and he basked in the attention.

Next he scanned the room for his friends, prowling like a cat amongst the grinding bodies in the vast open space in what he assumed was supposed to look like a living room but was really a balls hall.

Gumi wouldn’t budge about not coming so no point in searching for her. He found Luka sitting on the sofa chatting up some guy whose eyes kept slipping down to her abundant bosom, glaring at him from her revealing tank top. He couldn’t blame the poor guy who was obviously making a conscious effort to keep his eyes up, but it was stronger than him and he kept losing in the battle.

Miku and Kaito he found when he almost bumped into the pair while they were vigorously making out in the middle of the floor. If not for their vibrant blue hair he wouldn’t have been able to tell who they were, as they were practically swallowing each other’s faces. It was verging on nsfw. 

After deciding he did not want to get in on _that_ , he continued to search for Rin, the only friend who could probably keep him company tonight without making him want to gauge his eyeballs out. When he came to the conclusion she was not in the living room he decided to look in the kitchen, which turned up to be miles away.

In the middle of this other absurdly large room stood a long table, covered with colorful- but mostly empty by now- bottles of alcohol. He was sure it looked pristine when the evening began but now it was a giant mess. Empty paper cups were everywhere his eyes could take in, empty snack bags covering the floor along with puddles of things he didn’t think he wanted to know what they consisted of.

The first years he’d tried to attend parties, he found the smells and loud noises unbearable for his sensitive nose and ears. The smell was all-consuming and sharp, making him feel like he’d puke, and the music was always so loud he wanted to curl in a ball and cover his ears.

It became a whole lot easier when he realized vampires didn’t actually need to breathe. It was just something to do in public so as not to get suspicious, but his body, long ago dead, did not need air much like it didn’t need food or water. While attending those alcohol reeking places he would simply stop breathing, and when appearances were of importance he would puff his chest in and out to mimic the motions.

The noise was a bigger problem but with time he learned to channel his attention to better suit his comfort and mostly managed to ignore it.

Suddenly a familiar blonde head brushed next to him and Len was about to greet her when he realized she didn’t notice him standing there.

He had to stay staring after her enthralling figure in awe- she was absolutely top of the game tonight. Her lips glossy and beckoning, her legs long and thin, her narrow waist, showing where her shirt and shorts were separated, hypnotizing. And when she was with her back to him and he noticed the long line of skin a shirt should have covered was bare, he had trouble swallowing.

His eyes followed her slow cat-like trail along the room, impressed at how she seemed to draw more attention to herself tonight than even him. Her beauty was ethereal.

When a brave guy wrapped his hand around her shoulders she’d stopped and turned to face him, his arm stayed dangling lightly off one shoulder. Now that she had her face in Len’s direction he could see something was wrong with his girl.

Even though her eyes were locked on the brunet’s in front of her, something in them was very dull and strange, the usual light shining from them completely turned off. She was looking at this guy but not seeing him at all.

A heatless smile found its place on her face when both her hands clasped themselves around t-shirt guy’s neck and she pressed his body against hers tightly as they started swaying to the music. This guy’s posture was screaming satisfaction, the way his shoulders were squared and he was smiling stupidly when Rin leaned her head against his chest.

When her lips started mouthing at his neck to Len’s absolute horror, T-shirt guy’s hands started creeping down her bare back dangerously close to touching where if he did in a usual day he would end up with a broken bone or two, but now’s Rin didn’t even seem to notice their mischievous trail.

Before he knew it he was standing by them and tearing the hands away from the low of the blonde’s back, pushing him away and wrapping a protective arm around her middle to bring her close. “I’ll take her now.”

The guy looked absolutely flabbergasted, like a lion whose prey was taken out of its mouth while it was chewing on it. “What the fuck man?!” he near-shouted.

Fixing him with a glare that had the powers to kill, he let his eyes change to red for just a second, to let this guy know that he did not in fact want to start a fight because he might as well go out to dig his own grave.

Blinking multiple times as if to clear his vision, he paled when it did not clear and returned Len’s eyes to blue, then hastily turned away and left, clutching at his head.

Only Rin and Len stayed standing together, her back still to his chest. “Rin?” he tried but got no response.

When the beat of the song picked up she leaned her head back against his shoulder and returned to swaying to the rhythm of the song, seemingly still unaware who he was.

They were pressed against each other in every point of contact from up and down and Len tried to focus on her and not drown in the feel.

Her eyes were shut and her head turned away from him as she swayed her hips slowly. The vampire pushed her hair out of her face to lean and whisper in her ear, his lips grazing her ear and taking her lobe in his teeth. “Will you really let just anyone touch you like that, Rin?”

Her neck was immediately covered in goosebumps and she gasped, but didn’t open her eyes, lost in the moment.

He continued in his disbelieving questioning, while trailing his fingers slowly up her bare back, leaving goosebumps wherever it touched and making her breathe faster. “I gotta say, I didn’t peg you for the type to let just anyone touch you all over.”

To that she only giggled, her head lolling aside and almost slipping off his shoulder. He caught it carefully and sighed. “Let’s go upstairs, you can’t stay here like that.”

Again she was completely compliant and unresponsive as she simply let him drag her upstairs and he shuddered at thinking what would have happened if it was the guy from before leading her that way.

Then his step faltered when he realized he considered the other guy a danger and himself the safe option, as if he wouldn’t bring her harm. What was happening to him?

~ ~ ~

this is how i imagined Len's, Miku's and Rin's outfits for the party. i thought itd give you a nice visual, and i really enjoyed looking them up on the interent.

Rin's Miku's Len's


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally some action i've been waiting for!

As soon as Rin and Miku entered the mansion Rin felt insanely uncomfortable. She was having a bad day already and all of these gazes lingering on her, undressing her body, made her want to turn around and leave.

“Come on,” Miku’s hand wrapped around her shoulders to drag her fully into the room. “You just got here. Try to have some fun. Your best friend sees you need a drink.”

Rin stared at her friend with big puppy eyes, as if begging for mercy, or a way out.

“None of that. You wanted to come so face the consequences. Now go get yourself a cup of something strong like you love,” she patronized and pinched her cheek, “while I text my boyfriend to see where his ass is at.”

Sighing defeat, she departed towards the kitchen that was way too far away from the door, slouching her shoulders.

Not 10 steps into the room a bunch of guys eyeing her up and down hooted at her to join them in dancing and she snorted, not even sparing them a glance. _This is why I can’t go anywhere nice_ , she thought to herself self-consciously and tried to cover her bare thighs with her palms to the best of her abilities.

The quest to the cup of vodka was harder than Rin had expected. The road was long and filled with obstacles- which in that situation were reaching hands and bodies, whistles and howling, that she tried her best to avoid.

On her way back, relieved to be reaching the end of her battle, she could just make out Kaito entering through the door and Miku’s face lighting up at his arrival, and just when she was about to pick up her pace, a hand shot out to grab her and pin her body to another.

Already growling, she turned her head to be faced with a handsome fair-haired and fair-eyed second one. Blond guy was all cocky smirks and posture, his palms riding low on her back when he leaned in to whisper in her ear, “you’re going in the wrong direction, I’m right here.”

For a moment she felt too incredulous to even reply, before laughing out loud. Her cup was already chugged half empty and Rin was starting to feel the buzz, but she didn’t let it affect her judgement. At least not yet.

He on the other hand looked pleased with her reaction, until she planted both palms on his chest and shoved with all her might. “Jesus,” she mumbled under her breath, turning away to keep on towards her friends and salvation-

And then turned back around.

The two were already passionately making out and Rin knew she had nothing to look for there now that their tongues were in each other’s mouths. It was only downhill from that point with these two.

Sighing again she eyed the blond warily, who was staring at her in pure undiluted shock, standing a few feet away. She smiled at him. “Look for me in like an hour, I’m sure I’ll be drunk enough by then,” were her parting words for him.

While walking away she finished the cup in her hands with a grimace. She wasn’t half as drunk to be dealing with herself tonight yet, she decided while making her way again towards the kitchen.

_This is nonsense. I hunt vampires as a part-time job. They’re real monsters, with fangs, and I still kill them. 20 year-old boys are no match for me and nothing to be worried about. Snap out of it!_ She slapped both her cheeks while pouring another full cup of cheap vodka and swallowing it down as fast as she could without choking.

When she emptied the second large cup, she gasped for air, her throat burning and her eyes watering, but then her head started spinning and her chest warmed and expanded. A giggle escaped the blonde’s lips and she covered her mouth with a hand to suppress the next bout of giggles.

This is exactly what she needed.

~ ~ ~

Over the length of the next two hours and about an entire bottle of cheap alcohol, Rin could no longer think clearly. The blonde could barely walk straight so she resorted to just dancing all over the place, slowly gliding along the dancefloor while trying not to meet the ground too up-close.

She was feeling so elated and overjoyed to finally be free of the recurring nightmare visiting her head to terrorize her and finally getting a break of reliving her past and seeing all those painful sights; hell, she was barely seeing the things that were in front of her anymore.

Somewhere in the far back of her mind she could sense hands were touching her; lips kissed her skin; arms held her; bodies against hers. At a few points she even knew there were more limbs than one person could have.

She didn’t care. She felt happy, happy to be held, to be loved. It reminded her of better times when loved ones held her all the time. _No! Not there again. Maybe I need another drink?_

A broad chest was pressed into her back but something was different this time. They weren’t moving, which left just the world around her to swim in her vision and she yearned to return to swaying, anything to stabilize the world around her a bit, or at least move along with it.

A firm arm pressed her body into the one behind hers and she went with it, not having energy or will to resist. Something about this man behind her made her feel safe, something about the hug that was tight and reassuring and made her chest ache. She didn’t know who he was, but it felt as if he cared about her so she must have known him.

She needed to move. She tried going back to dancing but that guy didn’t cooperate and she was starting to get angry. Who did he think he was? She could pick whoever she wanted to dance with her, and he takes her from her dancing partner and doesn’t even dance? Boring!

Just when she was about to make him let go of her and move, his mouth was at the blonde’s ear and she froze. This was getting back to being interesting now. She gasped as his lips took her earlobe in and tickled her. His hand trailed up her back making her feel giddy.

Then she was sitting. She couldn’t remember when they were moving or where they went, but now that her legs got some rest she realized they were aching very badly. How long was she even in this party?

Someone next to her was talking in a deep voice, so it must have been a man. The man from before? Doesn’t matter. His voice was so smooth and nice on the ears, she wished he’d talk forever.

The voice was getting louder and louder and way closer to her face. Her nose crinkled. “Rin! Open your eyes for Christ’s sake!”

For some reason something in his tone left no room for argument, it was so authoritative and resolute, so she did as she was commanded.

The bright light made her eyes quint and burn- how long were they closed? It felt like how when you wake up someone suddenly turns on the light- excruciating. Her head ached- until her vision cleared and she saw what was in front her.

The big beautiful blue eyes she has craved for so long to see, just one last time. Emotion flooded her and she felt wetness trickling down her cheeks but couldn’t care less to wipe it away. Everything’s importance dwarfed at the sight before her. It was her mother.

~ ~ ~

When he finally got the smashed girl to open her eyes, Len did _not_ expect what came next.

After getting used to the light of the room and finally seeing him. Rin went dead-still. She was suddenly staring at him with such fierce intensity, nothing like the closed-eyed drunk mess she had been just seconds before, but something was still wrong. Her eyes were, although burning, not yet clear. She was still seeing through him.

Then it kept getting weirder and weirder- she started crying. Len’s eyes widened in astonishment, not sure what he should do to comfort the crying girl in front him- as there was nothing he could think of that had instigated this- but before the vampire could reach any conclusions both of Rin’s hands grabbed his face and she sniffled.

She pressed her head into his chest and moved her hands to hug him tight instead, their bodies pressed close. There was something very helpless about the gesture, it almost felt to him as if she were afraid he might disappear.

She leaned back to gently caress his cheekbones, his chin, his nose, as if memorizing it. Her face was so close to his that he could smell her alcoholic breath. “Your eyes…. They’re so pretty…”

He laughed out loud. “I know, but I still appreciate the compliment. Thank you darling.”

It was as if a spell broke. Her eyebrows pulled in together and she leaned back to look at him. It was as if it was truly the first time she had seen him this night. “Len?”

Len shook his head in amusement, not sure where she was going or where she had been. “Who else did you think?”

Now she was staring at him as if it was the first time she had seen him in her life, and it was starting to unnerve him.

A smile spread on her lips when she whispered “Len.”

He tried smiling back, because if anything he’s not a coward.

The blonde brought her hand to Len’s hair to rake her fingers through his locks and he shuddered involuntarily, stunned more and more by the minute at her forwardness.

“You have the most beautiful eyes I have seen in 9 years,” she sighed dreamily, her eyes darting back and forth between his two.

He snickered. “You have the most beautiful eyes I have seen in way more than that.” _Whatever. She won’t remember any of this come morning. Come morning and a hellish hangover._

At that she burst in a laughter so rambunctious that she almost fell backwards onto the bed while mumbling in-between gasps of laughter, “You’re saying that…- like you’re…- 200 years old!”, and he had to shoot an arm to catch her while laughing as well at her sheer silliness. She was a hilarious drunk.

While hanging mid-air solely by the support of his arm around her shoulders with him leaning slightly over her, eager to see her next play, her face suddenly turned all alluring.

“Len,” she let out in a low voice that sent warmth to his southern regions and her fingers found their place on his cheek again. They slowly trailed down his cheek to his lips where she let the pad of her thumb catch his lower lip to pull it down.

Her doe-eyes stared into his while she softly asked, “do you want me?”

The goddess in his arms sounded so insecure and innocent, her eyes were so big and shining, her lips slightly parted and inviting. Her cheeks were flushed and he could smell the blood so sharply- a sweet aroma that got him all excited.

The vampire’s eyes shifted to her lips as if from their own will before returning to bore into hers when he answered with the surety of a man who knew exactly what he wants a succinct “yes.”

Everything happened so slowly he felt ready to burst. Her hand moved from his bottom lip to grip the nape of his neck to pull herself straight and stop in front of his face to look into his eyes in a drunken sort of concentration.

Impatient, he leaned forward to try touch his lips to hers but she leaned away from him at his own pace so their lips never met. He frowned in frustration, not understanding the game she was playing but dying to see her next move.

A mischievous smirk crossed her lips and she was so close. He felt as if his heart has stopped beating for the second time in his life. Her face tipped forward to lick a wet stripe across his lower lip.

Thrilled, he let his lips part slightly while smiling and she leaned away to smile back, her pupils dilated so wide that the blue was reduced to only a thin circle surrounding a black ocean.

Her face overjoyed and eyes crinkling, a giddy giggle escaped from between her lips and he could no longer do anything but stare at her, infatuated. He was exhilarated. Was that what falling in love felt like?

She fell down to lie back while pulling his face in with her to smash the vampire’s lips into hers.

His mouth immediately started moving against hers with no delay, their tongues dancing around each other. She tasted sweet like alcohol mixed with honeyed soda and he could smell her fragrant blood and the natural scent that belonged only to her.

While inhaling and drowning in her he swore he felt like a man parched in the desert who was just given his first glass of cold water in days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw this post on tumblr and it really made me chuckle so i wanted to share it with y'all!  
> https://ive-been-winchesterd.tumblr.com/post/616949476314185728/the-only-thing-that-is-scary-about-vampires-is-the


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the plot is starting at last

When Rin came to, she wasn’t sure about the reason why; was it the stifling heat? The denseness? The headache? Miku’s snoring right into her ear? Maybe another one of those nightmares forgotten by the time one opens their eyes?

The scene was awful. On her medium sized bed both Miku and Luka were draped on either of her sides, both their limbs entangled in hers to some degree; legs, hands, faces; everything touching her and she was _sweating_ , her hair stuck to her forehead uncomfortably.

With a sigh and great effort she managed to detach her body from theirs and climb over Luka to step on the tiled floor, trying not to audibly gasp at the sudden change of temperature on her mostly bare skin – she was still wearing the clothes from last night (including her shoes). The blonde sighed heavily, taking them off and putting them to rest in their rightful drawer and continued in her socks.

She was absolutely parched as well, her throat almost aching as much as her brain.

Holding her hands to her temples in agony, she suddenly heaved and had to rush to the bathroom. It’s been so long since she’d thrown up from alcohol. She must have really gone wild last night. At least she still had her clothes on. Too many of them even.

After washing her mouth in disgust, she checked the guest room for the boys but found only Kaito sleeping soundly there.

She made her way downstairs, desperate for a glass of cool water and maybe aspirin. Her heart sank however when she saw the big clock on the kitchen wall read 6:05 am.

_God why?_

They couldn’t have gone back from the party before 2 am which meant less than even 4 hours of sleep. Moreover, her headache was way too severe to be able to fall back asleep anytime soon and she still felt nauseous.

Where was Len? Did he go home? Maybe even picked some girl up in the party?

For some reason her body heat up at the thought of him, accompanied by a fuzzy memory or dream, filled with soft lips and a hard body against hers, but before she could delve any further into that she shook her head vigorously. It was way too early in the morning for regret.

Resigning to just make herself a cup of black coffee instead of water, she thougt she’d soak in the morning sun for a while and carried the cup with her to her back garden.

When she approached the glass door however, she noticed it already slightly ajar with the shades up- her shades were _always_ down.

Warily progressing toward the now suspicious door, she peeked stealthily out to sigh in relief moments after. Len was sprawled on one of the sofas, staring in concentration at the tree above his head, as if turning a thought in his head over and over.

As soon as she closed the door behind her he turned his head in her direction, his eyes widening when they caught her standing there and looking at him in confusion.

A lazy smile took place on his face. “Good morning princess.”

Fighting the second heat wave threatening to take over her body, Rin grimaced and made her way to sit on the sofa opposite him, nursing the warm cup to her chest. “Coffee?” She offered but he only shook his head in silence, eyes back to gaze up at the yellowish leaves rustling around in the wind.

“Why are you awake?” he quietly asked.

She chuckled. “I should be asking you that.”

He smiled ruefully. “I guess I couldn’t sleep.” Looking her up and down again, more slowly this time, he added for good measure “you look like shit.”

She moaned an exasperated “I bet.” She wasn’t in her right mind to check her appearance in the mirror while she was puking but could guess what she must have looked like. Deep purplish bags under her eyes, smudged mascara and eyes puffy and red, hair still a sweaty mess plastered to her forehead and sticking probably in every which direction.

After looking at him better as well, her eyes widened. “You don’t. Care to explain how you don’t? You don’t even have bags under your eyes!”

“People who are truly good-looking remain so even under chaotic circumstances.” He as if recited patronizingly.

“God this is too early for this bullshit... “

They sat in companionable silence for a while, her drinking her coffee in small sips, him gazing thoughtfully at the sky, and afterwards they moved to the living room to watch tv and make breakfast for everyone.

She could swear that he kept sneaking glances at her during the entire day, which always made her neck prickle and her abdomen turn to hot lava.

Only when everyone left did she take a shower, and naked, she stared at herself in the mirror in morbid shock; her neck and collarbones that were mostly hid by the white shirt were covered in tiny bruises that realization slowly told her were hickeys. There was a single blossoming bruise on her hipbone that meant that her shirt was off at one point in the night, and then it happened-

The memory hit her like a bucket of icy water over her head and she choked.

~ ~ ~

_He was lying on top of her, elbows supporting his weight while one arm hooked itself around her slim waist to hungrily press their bodies closer together, the other messing her hair up with greedy fingers._

_She was making all those tiny gasps that made his head spin with want and all the little blood in his body rush downstairs and it honestly frightened him how badly he wanted this, how he was reduced to a mere weak human at the touch of her lips to his._

_His lips, thirsty for more, trailed down to her neck, sucking and nipping in her skin. She tasted so sweet and he could almost lick the blood under her skin, his fangs fighting to spring out but he suppressed them with all the willpower he could muster in his lethargic mind._

_The collar of her shirt was preventing it from progressing the way he wanted it to and almost as if she could read his mind she shoved his head a bit back so she could sit up to remove the traitorous piece of clothing, smiling at him while mischievously from under blackened lashes that made the radiant blue even more so._

_As he laid her back down gently, his right hand trailed down from her hair down to her neck where it continued to gently brush between her breasts that were clad in a white lacy bra, and down they went to her navel._

_She was very fit, even strangely so, he could almost make out lines of abdomen muscles and that even made her sexier. His head dipped to lick into her navel, making her head arch back with a gasp, and he moved to suck on one of her protruding hip bones. She was going to have fun tomorrow when she takes a shower._

_He froze._

_She’ll only realize when she takes a shower because she probably won’t even remember this in the morning._

_His lips left her skin, and he disentangled his hands from her body to move to lie next to her on the bed, his eyes staring at the ceiling in shock._

_She was staring at him when he looked at her, her eyes open wide but so hazy and red, expression in them not Rin’s at all. She looked at him lustfully, pupils blown wide, but eyes barely seeing._

_She rolled over to lie on top of him but instead of doing anything she only kept staring into his eyes with those unseeing beautiful eyes of hers. What was she seeing?_

_He was so upset he could cry. It’s been so long that the vampire had wanted this, Rin’s body in his, but now that he almost had it, he realized he didn’t want it like that. He wanted her to look at him when he was kissing her chest, not through him._

_He wanted her to gasp his name, to beg for him to give her what she wanted, not just lie there, almost passing out and smelling like alcohol._

_He suddenly felt disgusted and gently pried her hands from him, to lay her back next to him. “What the hell am I doing?”_

_She burst in hearty laughter, but he just knew at that point that it wasn’t because of what he said. Could she even hear him? Dammit…_

_He guiltily looked to the bulge in his pants, cursing in his heart. He was so much better than that, he wasn’t going to get anything out of having his way tonight other than an enemy or five, and even though he didn’t want to admit it to himself, regret._

_“Leeen!” She whined, still giggling. “What are you waiting for?”_

_He sighed and was about to get out of the bed when her tiny hands grabbed his shirt and tried to pull it off._

God this isn’t Rin, this is a monster, _he thought in horror, scrambling to get up faster and retrieve her shirt from the floor where it lay._

 _He chuckled upon looking at her, sprawled there shirtless, giggling to herself. “You’re_ so _fucking drunk, what have you done to yourself?”_

“Are you sure you’re not hungry man?” Kaito’s voice pierced through another one of those unrelenting reveries that kept haunting Len’s mind over the past two days.

“Not feeling like eating, it’s all good.”

Monday afternoon found him sitting in the cafeteria to grab lunch along with Kaito, Miku and Rin, who all had almost the same schedule as him, he came to realize, and this time even Luka could join them.

Whenever Rin’s eyes were caught in his it was like a full body tremor and he was reminded of how her lips felt against his.

“Any of you guys got lucky Saturday night? We could barely talk when we woke up before we all left…” Miku asked curiously, evidently still not entirely recovered, judging by her sluggish movements all day.

Luka chuckled coyly, murmuring a “maybe I did.”

“It was such a wild party, it’s been a long time since it’s been like that. I walked in on two people having sex in a closet!”

“Why would you open a closet not in your house in the first place?” Rin asked.

The other four all exchanged amused glances at the blonde’s charming innocence, but Len knew better than that by now.

“Well, silly, _we_ wanted to have sex in that closet!’ Miku explained, openly laughing at her.

Rin blushed and averted her gaze.

“Hey Rin, did you get lucky in the party?” Len asked her out of the blue, half curious to see what she’d say, and half wondering how much of it she even remembered.

Their eyes met and hers almost popped up, face reddening intensely. Stiffly she shook her head no, her eyes threatening

Before anyone could intervene, Len, still smiling calmly and never taking his eyes off Rin’s, said “you could say I did, get lucky that is. Sort of.”

Miku ‘ooo’ed’ and Luka asked eagerly, “what did she look like? Was she pretty?”

He smirked when Rin scowled at him further, as if daring him to answer it. If only she knew how much he liked those games she would have chosen a different tactic.

“That’s a stupid question, obviously she’d be pretty, he could get anyone he wanted,” Kaito asserted surely.

“I don’t know actually, if she was pretty, it’s very debatable.”

Rin’s mouth fell open and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance, her face nearing the shade of a tomato. He wondered if he could get the vein in her forehead to pop by the end of lunch.

“Must have been very spunky then, to catch your attention like that!” Miku exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward in the seat in attention, not paying any heed to her purpling friend on her side.

He mhm-ed. “Yes, yes, so spunky, you have no idea what this girl did. Dragged me upstairs, like grabbing me by the hand, not taking ‘no’ for an answer alright, then shoved me on the bed, all animal-like,” he chanced another glance in Rin’s direction who looked about ready to faint.

She didn’t have a ‘calling the bluff’ face which meant she didn’t in fact remember enough to know that he was lying. God did this make things even more fun.

Everyone around the table was absorbed in his story, even Rin who was probably dying to know where this was going more than anyone else.

Fighting to keep a straight face he mercilessly continued on. “So we’re all kissing and stuff, and she starts trying to strip me. I go ‘listen we’re both really drunk I don’t think this is a good idea’, I was just trying to do the right thing you know? But this girl, she doesn’t give two fucks. Just yells ‘take me daddy!’ “

Everyone burst into raucous laughter when Rin drags her chair back, saying something about needing to use the bathroom with a pained expression. She looked like she wanted to cry. 

Kaito, in between laughs, said “man, you’re wild.”

~ ~ ~

Splashing cold water on her face, Rin stared at her reflection in the mirror.

_Did I really do that?_

Len was obviously messing with her, never in her life would she call anyone daddy. _Or would I??_

She was panicking. _How can I ever look him in the eye again?_

She had known that there was some steamy shirtless stuff going on between them, but she also knew that they didn’t sleep together. She remembered kissing, she remembered the room, but all the details were foggy.

Taking a few calming breathes, she decided to brave on and return to the table. He didn’t tell the others who it was and they would never suspect it was her. All that she had to do was not make eye contact with him for the next… year or so. Easy.

She returned to the table on shaky legs, keeping her eyes forward, and luckily for her by the time she sat down they were talking about another topic. She could feel Len’s smug face on her, but refused to give in.

“It’s so freaky they haven’t found her yet… it’s been a month!” Miku told them, shuddering. “Honestly I’m getting scared.” 

“Babe, I already explained it to you! Nothing to get your head in a twist about, trust me.”

They were talking again about that missing girl then. It really was a mystery, one that strangely took her back to past hunts. This was similar to how those cases usually started, but Rin wasn’t paranoid and knew that not every missing person meant a blood sucking monster was involved.

Still, her gut was prickling…

“Say, Len,” Luka started tentatively. “Remember when the police arrived by the end of the first week? We weren’t really talking then but I could swear I remember them talking to you.”

Surprised, Rin looked at him, breaking her promise to herself. Len’s eyes were unreadable for a second, his eyebrows pulled in together in a thoughtful expression. “Yea… They did. This girl’s friend told the police how she was supposed to meet me that night so they had to ask if I knew anything.”

A tense silence fell around the table, everyone’s eyes bulging.

“Woah, calm down, she obviously never arrived in my house.”

“But… why was she supposed to come? Did you guys know each other?” Kaito asked, now sounding a lot less sure of his conspiracy theory.

“She just came on to me in school, flirted, said she wanted to have fun, I said sure. I actually waited for her for two whole hours before I decided to just go to sleep.”

Everyone was still quiet, but Rin’s gaze turned more intense. Dots were connecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would really appreciate to see your comments and thoughts on the story, to feel like someone's even reading this, so don't spare a thought :') as always, thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

Wednesday morning, leaning against the wall in the narrow corridor, Len watched on as groups of varying colors and energies brushed past him. Stretching, he could hear his muscles moaned and he let his eyes fall shut in order to fully enjoy the satisfying melody of cracking.

The vampire had spent the entirety of the previous night crouched in the same position on the sofa, enthralled by some trending new show on Netflix.

Having been born in 1861, he had got the pleasure of seeing humanity progress through the decades with increasing speed and creativity- the point at which they were had been utterly unbelievable relatively to how life had been for him after turning.

His favorite invention by far had been the television; it has not stopped evolving and bettering itself from the moment it was created. Every week hundreds of new shows and movies were released, with varying characters, scripts, settings, nothing was impossible!

With childlike excitement, he always made sure to get his hands on the newest models and streaming services available.

Although enjoying the wonders of acted out stories, he still held books much closer to his heart as they’ve left much more to the imagination- something the vampire had plenty of.

Some of the students milling around were alone, their nose buried in a cellphone, but most were in groups of friends, chatting excitedly in their private bubble.

Technically speaking he was far superior to all of them. They were mere prey, weak, mortal. It was hard for him to believe he used to be like that, too. If only he could remember…

Len used to stick to himself wherever he moved, familiar with the fact that the stay would not be long. And people always tried talking to him, inevitably drawn to his supernatural aura that was designed to help him lure his prey in. He never cooperated with their advances, why would a wolf befriend the sheep?

Or so he thought before he had gotten here. The vampire could not for the life of him understand what was so different about that small spot on the map of a town.

Here he was for the first time since he could remember, a part of those laughing groups passing through the hallways together, looking happy. To any onlooker he would look just like them. Just like everyone else.

He could not describe this odd feeling of being a part of something. Just yesterday evening Kaito had called him to take advice about something Miku had done to piss him off. Len had been the first person he had called to confide in. Kaito’s genuine _friend_. It made his stomach prickly, it twisted and turned for hours afterwards with a feeling he could not determine whether it was comfortable or not.

“Len!” a familiar melodic voice called out and snapping out of his reverie he turned to see Ron lightly jogging towards him, an unreadable smile on her face.

_Odd_. Ever since the party four days ago, the blonde had been nothing but an awkward blushing mess around him, avoiding his eyes at all costs. Now she was seeking him out? _Can’t be sad about that._

He flashed her a lazy smile, adding a casual “morning.”

Her smile stayed put and she greeted him back. “Lets’ go to Lit.” As they fell into step together he couldn’t help but ponder. Her tone was chipper, even overly so, but her eyes were not. When she looked at him her blue eyes were sharp, boring into his with something cool flashing beneath the surface.

“Excited,” he tried joking to ignore the suspicion blooming in his gut. Maybe this was her way to get over what had happened?

While they were walking in leisure, their shoulders kept bumping together every other step. _Casual touch. Where were her defenses?_ Did that mean she had finally truly accepted him as her close friend?

“Say Len…” she started, breaking the pregnant silence. “We’ve been friends a while now but we’re not close per se.”

“I dunno, we were pretty close Saturday-“

Chuckling, she cut into his words with a loud “NOT like that. It’s just… Yesterday I thought about it and I realized I really know nothing about you. We’ve never had a decent chat, just you and I.”

After a moment of silence she blushed, adding “ _especially_ after what happened Saturday. It’d feel weird for me to go on like this after _that_.”

Everything she had said caught him off-guard. Was she asking for a date?

“I agree, definitely,” he said as an afterthought, still trying to understand where she was going with this.

“Maybe I could come over Friday night to your place?”

His eyes bugging out, he could only stare at her until she seemed to have realized what came out of her mouth had hinted on and she flustered.

“Not like that! I mean, you know, as friends, just to chat and stuff. I remembered you lived alone so I thought it’d be less awkward than sitting in some restaurant.”

Rin was offering to come to his house alone, on a Friday night, just to ‘chat’. He tried searching his brain for possible less than innocent explanations but came out empty-handed. What was the harm?

Besides, he really did want to know her better, he had so many things that he wished to ask, especially after that one talk he had had with Miku while they’ve watched Rin waiter;

_“It’s just, she never told me anything really personal about her, like friends do. I always spill my heart out for her, and consult in her, and she always listens and gives the best advice, but it never goes the other way around. And it drives me crazy, frankly. Sometimes she gets this really sad look on her face like she’s stuck in a bad trip, and I pester her and try to get something out of her, but she never yields. She’s so emotionally constipated,” Miku added in, chuckling a bit to herself despite her wistful tone of voice._

_“I’m sure it’s not that she doesn’t trust you, it’s probably she doesn’t like opening up. What could it even be anyway to make her as sad as you say?”_

_“I have no idea but her life is so weird. Turned out she’s moved around a lot during her school years because of her parents, and switched a lot of high schools and stuff so she couldn’t make many friends anywhere. Also what’s up with her parents? They’re literally never home, she’s always alone, and they’re also so young, they have maybe 10 years between them. She’s not theirs for real, she can’t be.”_

Ever since that talk he had been more than a little curious about the beautiful girl before him.

There was only one problem with her visit. A pressing one at that. Len was getting hungry.

It’s been over a month since he had last fed, when he was used to at least twice a month. It was not yet critical but he was losing himself a bit more every day and couldn’t help but wonder when he would snap and lash out.

Getting another prey would be no problem for him, he knew, but as he had already learned, this was a small town where news travelled fast and caused quite the stir. It wouldn’t be long after he fed again that he would have to leave for good, and he found himself very reluctant to do so.

“Sure,” the vampire found himself blurting eventually against his better judgement. Screw judgement.

She gave him an easy smile but he couldn’t shake the feeling of seeing something else on her face all day.

~ ~ ~

Rin has been trailing his every move in school for two days now. Ever since the suspicion has dawned on her on Monday, she has been keeping a close watch on him, averting her eyes quickly whenever he caught her staring.

Len was not ordinary, that was for sure, but did that make him a monster? She has yet to figure out.

Of the revelations she had made so far those were several:

  1. Whenever he walked or was even just present, people’s eyes were uncontrollably drawn to him. There was some strong pull towards him, even when he was just standing there minding his own business, it was as if something was screaming at the crowd to look. He was very attractive though, so it could be just chalked up to charisma or something, accompanied by devilish good looks.
  2. She had never once seen him eat or even chew on something. This was a very strong piece of evidence to support her suspicion- although there were few possible explanations as well; could be shy about eating in public, those existed. Could also be starving himself or something to remain thin although he didn’t look the self-torturing type.
  3. He was always overly fascinated with Gumi’s gadgets, her colorful headphones, her music producing new hobby. His eyes would widen and he would drink in every word she’d said as if he could not believe what he was hearing. She’d always found it very weird but Gumi seemed very happy to share her passion with someone who really cared for once.



He was so weird, but he never turned aggressive and was never mean to anyone, just very aloof. As if he couldn’t care less about the world. Besides, ever since that girl gone AWOL, there hasn’t been any other out of place news and it’s been over a month- if he really was a vampire he should have been _hungry._

Walking down the hall on her way to the 9am Lit class they’ve shared, she spotted him leaning against the wall, gazing around with indifference.

This was one of those things about him that drove her crazy. He looked on one hand so unapproachable, yet so alone. His eyes were completely dead, no light shining through, as if he had been through something so traumatic as to dehumanize him and strip him of any emotion.

Len sometimes adopted the look in eyes just like a knight, the lone survivor of a terrible war that has demolished the entire city he was sworn to protect and killed all the ones he’d ever loved. He had won the battle for his life but found there was nothing left to live for. Beautiful and golden, devastated.

After managing to secure a visit to his place without imploding by the very skin of her teeth, she’d resolved to keep observing until Friday rolled by.

Before she knew it, it arrived.

~ ~ ~

Taking a deep breath, Rin straightened the helm of her black crop-top camisole and tucked her blonde hair behind her ear, before ringing the bell to Len’s apartment.

It was around 9:30 at evening and she was frankly quite tired to be dealing with this after a 10 hours shift at the café and an emotionally draining week but determination pushed her forward. Since it was getting a bit chilly now in the evenings she paired her camisole with a long pair of blue jeans and short boots that easily hid the blessed wooden stake safely tucked in her sock, just in case.

Michelle and Jacob have finally come back home Wednesday afternoon and Rin was so excited to see them that she almost cried, especially having to face this new challenge- it had just felt safer knowing they were around. Her personal net of protection. She told Miku in advance that she’d be sleeping at home for the rest of the week instead of in the dorms.

They were very tan and freckled, looking happy yet worn out. After hugging her tightly they simply crashed into bed and emerged only 14 hours later.

Rin made them both coffee and breakfast before having to leave for school, barely managing to sit through classes from the excitement. When she got back home it was to the noise of the tv on, and there were voices talking… For the first time in a while her house felt full and lively.

As she sat with them, they were holding each other and telling her all about their country-crossing trip. They admitted that despite offing 2 vampires, most of their trip was for pleasure and they wished they could have brought her along.

She really wished it had not brought up a bitter taste in her mouth but it did.

When they inquired how things were going for her she had simply smiled and told them how fine everything was for her. For the life of her she could not bring herself to tell them about Len, no matter how many times she’d tried to get it out her throat. It felt like saying it out loud would make it real and for some reason that thought was still unbearable.

Just before leaving for Len’s place driving their black car, the blonde huntress had snuck into their hunting cabinet to snatch one stake and disappeared.

The door opened to reveal Len dressed in simple black sweats and a gray tank top. His eyes lit up when he saw her and he ushered her in, closing the door behind her.

_Into the lion den the girl marched._

“You want to drink anything?” he politely offered with both hands in his pockets when they both stood in the entryway.

She shook her head smiling. “Thank you though. That’s a really nice place you own,” she added, taking it all in. The house wasn’t very large, but it was spacious and scantily furnished, giving it an overly big and empty feeling that reminded her of her own.

“I’m just renting it for college. Don’t know if I’ll stay after though.”

Her eyebrows raised in humor when she stepped farther in and saw his living room. He had two enormous flat screen televisions, multiple gaming consoles and like a hundred dvd’s. Who even still used dvd’s? A chuckle escaped through her lips before she could stop it and she blurted “Len why do you have two tvs?”

It was as if he noticed them being there for the first time and abashedly scratched his head. “Erm… sometimes I want to watch two different things at the same time.”

Open mouthed, she could only stare at him. “You’re one spoiled brat aren’t you?”

“Shut up”, he chuckled and sat down on the backrest of the sofa, facing her.

“Can’t wait for the day you have three shows you want to watch at the same time. Promise you’ll call me then so I can see you handle it.”

Rolling his eyes he answered cheekily, “You know, I don’t see the problem. I had the need, I had the money, and I did it. Will you burn me at the stake for that?”

The corners of her mouth turned down slightly at the mention of ‘stake’ and it was as if a bucket of cold water was spilled over head. For a minute there she completely forgot why she was there. She fell in his charm and lost her mins.

_Rin. Focus._

“I have yet to mention how lovely you look tonight, Miss Kagamine.” He said suavely, making her stomach flutter.

She smirked from under her lashes, shooting back “flattery will get you nowhere.”

“A shame. What if I buy you a tv?”

And like that her focus ran off the road once more as she burst in laughter.

“You know what? How about I just make myself tea and we go sit outside? The weather is really nice.” She asked, giving in to the fatigue weighing her down. She didn’t have to find anything out specifically tonight right? She could wait for the right time when she’s sharp and awake and not easily swayed by a cheeky freckled smile and pretty eyes.

Tonight she’d just try to enjoy with her friend. If fangs showed then she’d do what she had to, but as long as they didn’t, why would she have be so on edge?

After making two cups of tea Len led her to his backyard where there was a small round table and a few chairs. The garden was in bloom and very well kept, it was evident he knew what he was doing to tend to the greenery. The smell was earthly and the early October breeze was cool and felt nice on her bare shoulders.

Sitting down, she inhaled deeply, trying to unwind from the tension she’d felt all week. Trying to let go of the unwanted bitterness she had felt toward Michelle and Jacob for always leaving her alone.

Len was sitting next to her and they were silent and she pressed the cup of tea to her chest and it felt like it warmed her very soul. Inhale. Exhale.

“You look like you needed this.”

Startled, Rin looked at Len and saw him watching her with not concern, but not quite amusement either. Something in-between.

She tried smiling but failed. “I just have all these feelings I don’t want to have, it’s hard to explain. It’s nice being here though, and breathing.”

His eyebrows pulled in, and he got this brooding expression in his eyes. “You don’t need to explain. I get it.”

The silence was very comfortable. It seemed like they both had a lot to think about, he was just as deep in his head as she was and she got it, she really did. Sometimes when your head and heart were feeling like too much, even without talking it was nice to sit next to someone just to feel less alone in this.

“Len, why are you living alone?” _please, god, let him say something that made sense and would put my heart at ease._

He seemed a bit surprised at being pulled out of his head but it didn’t take him long to answer. “My mom left us when I was very young. My dad died when I was 17.”

He didn’t sound sad, just empty. His eyes on the other end told it all; they were the same as hers. He wasn’t sad nor happy. Simply tired of being alone and she recognized it so well right then.

“I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Why don’t you live alone but you always are?”

She cringed. “They’re home today.”

He turned his head back to face forward, not prying any further, thankfully. For some reason though, she felt like she could tell him, and more than that, that he’d understand.

“They told me that they had a lot of fun and they wished I could have come with them.”

Her sucked air through his teeth. “Must have felt like a stab in the rib.”

She chuckled, “You bet!”

She sipped the last of her tea and laid the empty cup on the table, stretching her legs to lay them on the chair in front of her to sit more comfortably.

“It drives me crazy that it hurts. They’re not my real parents, everyone knows that. They only took me in out of pity and did their best, it’s not like they owe me anything. So how can I hold it against them?”

The blonde didn’t know why she was telling him all of this, just that it felt right at the moment.

“You have a right to have feelings, Rin. Maybe I can only say it because I know what coming back to an empty house every day feels like, but I just know that I’m right.”

It felt like she was punched in the gut and her throat clogged up. She could not speak for a whole minute, just absorb the words he had said. Swallowing the lump down she quietly said “you and I are very much alike, aren’t we?”

“I don’t think we are.”

She tried not to think too hard about his strange response and just turned to look at him. A golden Adonis. His cheekbones and jaw were sharp and the moon gave them a tempting glint. His light curls that were as soft as they’d looked, she’d found out last week, were gently caressed by the wind.

A wave of desire so forceful overtook her that it was hard to breathe for a second. She never acted like herself when she was around him, there were all these new sensations unfamiliar to her that she secretly didn’t hate as much as she’d tried to. She wanted this man to be hers.

“Did you mean what you said on Saturday?”

“I always mean what I say,” he answered flirtatiously, “but which part are you referring to?”

“Wanting me,” she blurted as fast as she could as she knew that if she stopped to think she wouldn’t have the courage.

His gaze sharpened and his pupils dilated. “I always mean what I say,” he repeated, never breaking eye contact.

On knees wobbly with anxious anticipation Rin stood up to sit herself slowly on Len to straddle him, keeping her eyes fixed his to be able to read them. She was so far pleased with what she was seeing. It must have been the boldest she had ever been but the blonde tried for once not to think but just act.

He rested his palms on her lower back to hold her, arching his face up to meet her lips when she leaned down.

It started very slow, as if both of them were trying to savor the moment rather than rush it. Ever since remembering the happenings of the party, she couldn’t help but think about his lips whenever she tried falling asleep at night. She needed to feel it again.

The kiss was heating up within the second, tongues entering the equation and his hands lowering to cup her bottom. She shuddered and buried her hand in those curls she had coveted and he chuckled into the kiss, probably noticing her fixation.

She heard him inhale and that’s when things had changed to the point of no return. She couldn’t point out exactly to what has changed but it was instantaneous. The entire energy got darker, his grip on her tighter and his lips trailed from her lips down to her neck.

He was licking and sucking on it, becoming more and more aggressive until the feeling was becoming uncomfortable.

Then she felt a sharp pain.


	11. Chapter 11

Everything went dark. For what felt like forever but must have been only a few seconds her breathe stuck in her throat and her eyes glazed over.

Something wet and warm was trickling down her neck and she knew that it had happened, the worst of all- the fangs came out. Her cursed intuition was always right and she knew it, but still she chose to ignore it for her feelings. It was the first time in her life she chose to go with her heart instead of her brain and now she was going to die for it.

She vaguely recalled the blessed stake resting in her sock but she was losing herself, everything was getting distant and she felt like she was sinking. The horror was fading into a pleasant dream- she could feel soft warmth in her stomach, and her mom was handing her sweet cotton on a stick at the carnival and

She hit the floor.

Blinking her eyes open, not remembering having ever closed him, she tried to readjust to her surroundings. This was the cold tiled floor in Len’s yard. She was half-lying, facing the chair they had been sitting on but he wasn’t there.

With a trembling hand she reached for her pulsing throat and recoiled when she felt the wet trail. _Why am I not dead?_

Heavy panting somewhere behind her made her head snap back-immediately dizzying her up further. That’s when she saw him;

He was crouching down on all four with his back to her, a distance away, as if he shoved her off of him to physically throw himself on the floor.

Bringing her hand back to cover the bleeding wound in her throat, Rin slowly stood up on shaky knees, trying not to fall back down. They were both panting very hard by then and it was everything that was audible in the eerie silence of the night.

Trying to steady herself, the huntress reached down to take hold of her weapon, but before she could bend down low enough a strangled moan left the vampire’s lips and she startled, almost losing balance.

“Help me”, a broken moan tore itself from his throat pathetically and he retched.

_Help him? HOW?!_

She tensed her jaw, reality not seeming to make any sense in her hazy brain. “Look at me,” she panted through clenched teeth.

“No”, he sobbed, his body tensing.

“Look at me!” she shrieked, closing her eyes with the effort. _How dare he embarrass me like that?_ She felt like curling up and dying. A vampire, the monster she had sworn to destroy with all her power, had almost killed her and why? Because she had given her body up for him and almost died for that. Just like her parents. She really should have died just then, she could never love herself again after almost dying like that. _Why did he stop instead of finishing me off?_

His arms trembling to hold his weight, he turned his head slowly in her direction and her breath caught in her throat.

She could not tear her eyes away from the hypnotizing sight in front of her; Len’s eyes had turned from gentle blue to fiery golden discs. His mouth was hanging half-open in soft pants, lips full and blood slowly dripping down from his bottom lip. He looked like a lion, beautiful and deadly.

“Rin. I’m so hungry.” Tears were flowing freely from both beautiful eyes. She felt like crying herself, stake forgotten.

Tears starting to fall from her own eyes, she choked out “what do you expect me to do?” Her legs no longer supporting her, the huntress slid down to sit on the floor in front him as well.

The vampire couldn’t have drunk a lot of her blood, she realized, and that was an impressive feat, it was supposed to be near impossible to stop before the thirst was quenched, but he somehow did.

Len was crawling toward her, his eyes on hers, slowly turning back to blue in front of her. It was magical. When he reached her he lowered his head to rest his forehead against her booted legs, utter act of surrender.

“Rin, I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry…”

She could only stare in awe. Not only did he manage not to kill her, but he turned himself from sheer power of will back from the feeding form. It must have required immense mental effort.

“Please don’t hate me… I know what you must think… and you must be so confused… But please, don’t hate me.”

Her heart was beating so fast she thought it’d break free of her ribcage. “I-“

“I’m so hungry. I don’t want to kill anyone here… Please, help me.”

She realized something- his head was right next to the stake in her shoe and he wasn’t even looking at her. It would be so easy to just kill him, right there, right then.

But she also realized at that moment, that she couldn’t do it. This wasn’t a monster in front of her, it couldn’t be, begging like that, crying and pathetic. He looked just like a child, so small and miserable, just a victim of circumstance. It was sometimes hard to remember, what with how heartless they could be, that none of them had chosen to become what they were. 

“How old were you?”

He silenced, lifting his head to look at her with big once again clear blue eyes. They really were the eyes of a child, how didn’t she ever see this?

“Seventeen.”

_Not even an adult. Already forced to kill in order to survive._

Her heart clenched painfully in her chest and her eyes fell shut with the feelings abusing her soul. _What am I going to do?_

“Look… Len. I’m not as confused as you think I am. I won’t elaborate about that, but I think I have an idea how to help you.”

~ ~ ~

Rin rounded the small building stealthily, followed closely by Len. It was already nearing midnight so the silence was deafening, broken every other minute by a loud huffing of a slumbering animal.

_Bingo,_ she thought, as they were faced with multiple large barrels, containing swirling red liquid.

After bandaging her aching neck, the two of them got into Rin’s car and drove into a slaughterhouse just outside of town that Rin had remembered seeing a few times on the way in and out.

Because of it being very late on a weekend she knew she couldn’t have called the owner to ask to purchase animal blood, no questions asked, and it wasn’t exactly postponable, she had decided to just drive there and try her luck at maybe swiping some for the time being.

Illegal as it may be, it wasn’t murder.

“Ok, here’s what you’re gonna do,” she whispered as to not stir the animals awake, “you grab a barrel, I’m sure you can, what with your monster strength, and we leave very very quietly towards my car.”

Wide-eyed and still a bit shell-shocked from the occurrences of the night, Len just nodded and lifted one, not straining with the weight one bit. It was a funny sight, seeing a young man carry a human-sized barrel filled with blood and Rin cringed at how she could even think up the word ‘funny’ given the current situation. Her life felt like it was falling apart.

As they neared her car they both picked up their pace, eager to leave this place already, and Len got into the back of the car, balancing the barrel precariously next to him. Rin just stood there staring at him to make sure nothing fell.

“Len. I’m helping you from the goodness of my heart, but if even one bit of blood falls on the seats I will kill you, and trust me that I can.”

Len smiled sheepishly and murmured a “got that.”

She sighed and got into the driver’s seat. _I can’t believe I just did that. I stole blood- to help a vampire, that is right now sitting in the back of my car, looking awkward and stupefied._

“Did you ever drink animal blood?” she asked conversationally as they started driving away.

It took Len too long to answer so she checked his face in the rearview mirror to find his eyes reverting to a golden hue. She accelerated.

“No. I’m sorry for the eye thing, I’m just… I can smell the blood.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

They drove in silence for the next 15 minutes, both too tired- and maybe a little bit in shock- for small talk.

As soon as she’d parked in front of Len’s house he had bolted from the door, almost running, with the barrel in hand. She took her time getting out of the car and locking it, knowing what she’d see when she’d enter.

After standing outside his door for a minute or so, to give him privacy but also for herself to collect her thoughts, she pushed the door open. The sight was a mess. He was sitting on the floor in a pool of blood, the now half empty barrel still in his hands as he was chugging desperately.

The blood got everywhere as his mouth was not big enough to contain all the spilling liquid; His clothes were drenched and even the tips of his blond hair next to his ears. She was certain this was what hell smelled like.

Not reacting in the slightest, she simply brushed past him to sit herself on the couch, staring ahead and trying to ignore the chugging noises.

The stake was now digging at her foot uncomfortably and she knew that she’d start bleeding soon, but couldn’t bring herself to care in the slightest. She felt like she had just betrayed herself in the worst possible way, but also like she might have done the right thing at the same time and it tore her apart.

A few minutes later Len had showed up, standing in front of her. Her eyes took in his blood-soaked form and then locked on his now constant blue orbs. It felt like neither of them knew what to say.

“How was it?” she asked faintly.

Straight faced, he answered “Disgusting. But I can survive like that.”

Lowering her eyes she nodded, her heart screaming in relief that her plan had not failed after all. She wasn’t sure if animal blood would suffice, it was really a wild desperate shot in the dark.

“Thank you.”

His face was still indifferent, but his tone of voice said everything, it was thick with emotion and meaning. She must have changed this boy’s life tonight.

After taking a quick shower Len had come back to sit next to her on the couch, where she had yet to move a single muscle. The pool of blood was still resting on the floor near the entry way, but neither of them seemed to deem it a priority.

In silence, he laid his head on her thighs, facing her stomach and curling into a ball. She buried her hand in his wet curls, combing her fingers gently through the locks.

That was the night everything had changed.

~ ~ ~

Miku stopped in her tracks, grabbing Gumi’s sleeve to halt her step as well.

“What?” Gumi lifted her head from her phone to ask in irritation, not quite seeing what Miku was.

“Look” she answered with urgency, pointing somewhere down the hallway near the door to Rin’s Calc class.

“WHAT.” Gui blurted now in surprise, her eyes widening at the sight.

Rin and Len were walking towards the door, their faces down. What made the scene so strange was more than one thing. Len was holding Rin’s hand tightly in his, trailing just a bit behind her, and she was letting it happen rather than participating.

Her face was pale and her cheekbones more prominent than they had been the week before. Len’s shoulders were hunched and he was holding her possessively, his body language screaming ‘get back’, with his eyes screaming needy, staring at the side of Rin’s face.

They had stopped in front of the door and she turned to look at him, releasing her hand from his hold and staring into his eyes meaningfully. He grabbed her face with both hands to plant an overly passionate desperate kiss on her lips; Rin had seemed a bit surprised at first but quickly picked up, burying her hands in his hair and pressing closer to his body.

They were turning every head in the corridor. When they detached, their faces stayed hovering next to each other for a few long seconds, before Rin shook her head and entered the classroom alone.

Miku and Gumi stared on in shocked silence for a few seconds at the stop where they had been after Len had left.

“This didn’t seem like a healthy thing to me. What about you?” Miku asked her friend in worry. The image of Rin’s pale face was burned into her mind. She looked like she hadn’t had a blink of sleep in three days.

“What the hell had happened over the weekend?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and part one of the story had ended. I'm really glad i managed to get here with the few time i have for writing. Part two is gonna have more of a healing concept for our poor children :) as always, please leave a comment to tell how you liked it so far


	12. Chapter 12

~Part Three~

“ _You say I killed you – Haunt me then_ ” ~Wuthering Heights.

Chapter 12

“Sooo…” Miku started in an off-sided manner, obviously deciding to just point out the elephant in the room. “How long has- “she gestured vaguely at where Rin’s hand was resting in Len’s on his lap- “ _this_ been going on?”

They were all having their lunch break, one of the rare days that all six of them could sit together. Everyone was sorta leaning forward in their seat but trying to be subtle about it.

Len smiled slightly to himself, tightening his hold on his lover’s hand. He could not have been happier. The vampire felt like a gold medalist in the goddamn Olympics while holding her hand walking down the university corridors and having everyone gawk in envy. He was, after all, holding the hand of arguably the most beautiful girl in the entire country- arguable in the way that if anyone would have dared argue he would _fight_ them.

“We went on a date Friday night, it only progressed naturally,” he said cockily, trying not to flinch at the memory of the foul taste of the beasts’ blood going down his throat. It felt rotten and hollow but he kept on chugging as if his life depended on it. It did. The memory of the taste attacked his mouth all of a sudden and he sucked air through his teeth, tightening his hold on Rin’s hand once again, for reassurance. 

Luka and Miku ‘ah’-ed with hearts in their eyes and Kaito looked impressed. The only one looking out of place around the table was Gumi who instead of staring at him had her gaze fixated on Rin with a troubled expression.

His eyes snapped in his girlfriend’s direction and his heart sank. She was looking to the other side, leaning on her palm. Her complexion was ashen and her eyes tired. She looked a little bit sick. She wouldn’t return any of the squeezes he was giving her hand.

Friday night Rin had ended up staying over. It couldn’t have really gone any other way what with how much they had both been through in those few hours. They stayed in the same position on the couch until the sun came up- her sitting upright on his sofa, his head resting on her soft thighs. He didn’t think she’d had a wink of sleep all night as her hand had never stopped its gentle caressing of his hair.

Neither had dared speak though, so as not to break the spell of the night, otherwise they’d have to deal with things and it felt like neither was really up to it, not yet at least.

At dawn, as light began to filter through the cracks in the shades and cast rays of early sunlight throughout the entire living room area, Rin carefully pushed his head away from her lap and bolted to the bathroom. He could hear her throwing up, wretched coughs and maybe a few suppressed sobs, but when she was back she had not mentioned it so neither did he.

Instead of returning to the couch she ventured into the kitchen and emerged with a cup of steaming black coffee.

“How are you?” he asked in a hopeful tone of voice, hoping to God she would not depart after finishing her drink, and leave him all alone. _Not that any god would take a monster’s prayers_ , he thought listlessly and sunk to lie back down.

“Good. How are you?”

He peeked from the corner of his eye to see her still standing there, a distance away from the sofa, staring at him with unseeing eyes. It reminded him of a party that was two weeks ago but suddenly felt like worlds away. Her eyes, they bore the exact same emotion as that night.

“Are you going to leave?” he asked the ceiling, refusing to see her face while she contemplated her answer. Would she grimace? Would she laugh?

“No. I don’t think I can for a while now.”

At that he straightened up, gaping in amazement. Her face was indifferent but her eyes were haunted. He could almost physically hear the wheels in her head turning. “Why can’t you?” he asked more in confusion than real care, as her reply suited his needs very conveniently.

“Michelle and Jacob are there,” she explained silently without elaborating, as if that alone explained everything. He also noted that she no longer called them her parents next to him. 

“Stay as long as you want.” _Never leave._

He didn’t know why but the thought of staying alone was unbearable. Rin was the first person in decades to know his identity, and a mystery at that. Soon after turning, he tried finding friends so as not to be so lonely, but whenever someone had found out what he really was, they either immediately ran away screaming, or tried killing him and only after that hadn’t worked out for them (unfortunately maybe for both of them, he had already thought), they left.

He was always alone, for the past 150 years or more. What was worst was the fact he could not even remember his life before being turned. He didn’t have not one good memory to hold on to when things got bad, and he couldn’t even kill himself, god knows he’d tried. The only things he’d remembered about the past were small fragments and presences. He didn’t invent the story he had told Rin of how his mother had left him when he was young; reaching back into his mind he did not feel a mother’s warm presence.

Rin was the first person ever to know his identity and not flee. She had sat with him all night and didn’t seem inclined to leave. With every second passing, the need for her to stay grew stronger. Her fingers carding through his hair felt euphoric. Her warm silky skin wa heaven. He was finally not alone.

On legs shaky with hesitation he rose from the sofa to approach her until their bodies were only a breath away from each other. He was a head or so taller than her so he was staring down into her eyes and she was looking right back up, her eyes shining and wide. Oh, what would he give to be able to know what she was thinking…

He decided to try his luck. Lifting a sure finger, he tipped her chin up for their lips to softly, briefly meet. The kiss was so sweet and his eyes fell shut with the feeling. When he opened them and leaned back, he could see her eyes blinking open as well and they stayed like that for a long while, speaking to each other solely through their eyes.

“Rin.”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Instantly her eyes glossed over and tears started spilling down her cheeks in rivers. “Don’t say that.”

“I mean it.”

“You can’t. You don’t know me.” A broken sob left her mouth and she covered it with a hand to smother it.

He took her hand from her mouth to lace their fingers together. “I will. I will know you.”

“I can’t….” her eyes were darting in all directions, she seemed like she was about to get lost so he let go of her hand to hug her body tightly, trying to convey all of his feelings through his rough embrace.

“Please, don’t finish this sentence. You stayed. You found out and you stayed. I don’t need anything more, other than you staying by my side. At least give it a chance! I don’t know what I’d-“

He stopped himself by biting on his tongue. It was almost embarrassing how he was begging but he didn’t regret it for one second.

“Please. Just say you won’t disappear on me.”

Rin exhaled deeply.

“Please.” His voice was getting shakier.

She leaned back and sniffled. “Fine!”

For a second he couldn’t believe she had really said it. “What?”

“I said fine! I’ll stay! We… we can work. We’ll work it out, we really will. Right?” she didn’t wait for him to answer, just kept on blabbering. “It will be fine, we can have fun even. It’ll work out.”

Rin ended up staying there all of Saturday, and then also all of Sunday. She called to cancel all shifts she was supposed to work in Sunny Café, claiming too sick to come in and apologizing profusely.

At night, he sat next to her on the bed in his room, watching her sleep. Or at least trying to sleep. Her eyes moved restlessly behind her closed eyelids and she would every hour wake up screaming bloody murder and shaking all over.

Nightmares. He would hold her close to his chest to try to soothe her back into a restful sleep. She went into his arms willingly, but it kept happening.

His beauty was turning into a ghost in front of his eyes. By Sunday night her skin was deathly pale and her eyes bloodshot. She couldn’t eat more than a few slices of bread a day without throwing it up and only agreed to drink black coffee, no matter how many times he’d tried to shove glasses of water at her.

Something was eating her alive from the inside but she wouldn’t open up about it.

Today, Monday morning, they had walked into school together. She was still wearing the clothes she came in to his place on Friday, refusing to go home claiming she had plenty of spare clothes in her dorm room.

Now, sitting in the cafeteria, he couldn’t help but understand Gumi’s concern. He nudged Rin in the side to grab her attention.

“Hm?” she asked, turning to him.

“Rin, you’re feeling okay?” Gumi asked, worrying her bottom lip.

“Yea, of course. I’m super. Why?”

“You don’t look super,” Luka said, noticing as well now that her attention had moved to her friend.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just couldn’t sleep very well. Don’t worry about me.” She tried at a smile she must have thought came off as chill but really only made all the eyebrows around the table pull in further together.

Feeling all attention on her, Rin stood up and left without a word.

It really hurt Len to see her like this, he could feel something in his heart break with every passing second since Saturday morning. “Sorry guys, I’ll go check on her,” he said, dashing off without waiting to hear their response.

He could see a flicker of blonde hair just at the entrance to the cafeteria and followed it, catching up to her in the hallway to grab her hand.

Taken by surprise, Rin tried doing one of her elaborate fighting moves he had yet to learn where in the hell she had picked up, but he was way too powerful to be pushed to the ground.

Seeing it was him though, her eyes cleared and she murmured a “oh, it’s you.”

“Sleep over at my place tonight instead of here.”

She frowned and her mouth opened as if in protest before shutting. “Okay.”

His eyes widened. “Really? That’s all?”

The blonde scowled. “You want me to or not?”

A wide grin took over his face and he scooped her in his arms. “I do, of course I do.”

~ ~ ~

Everything has been sort of spinning for the last 24 hours. It was the weakest the huntress had felt in a long time.

Almost missing a step in the doorway of her boyfriend’s house, she stumbled into more than knocked on his door.

Frankly she had not been very ecstatic about another sleepless night at his bed but it was the lesser of two evils with the other being Miku’s Spanish inquisition that was waiting in the dorm. Going back home had not been an option, not until Michelle and Jacob leave again at least.

How could she look them in the eye? How could she ever? She could barely look her own eye in the mirror anymore.

The door opened before her and Len was standing there with a big smile plastered. His beautiful blue eyes were shining and the freckles on his nose were just barely visible in the dusk light. He was so gorgeous that her heart ached and then came ensuing her normal chain of reactions at seeing him; her stomach fluttered and turned, as if a million butterflies were trying to bust out, which was followed by a swirling nausea at the unshakeable guilt that overtook her, followed at last by a wave of unadulterated self-hatred.

God knew she hated herself for feeling this excitement in her stomach at facing this monster of the kind that had taken her parents. _They must be rolling in their graves._ _If I had any sense I would have killed_ _him three days ago, for if this goes on I will probably kill myself._

Probably noticing the vast array of emotions showing on her face, the vampire’s face had fallen and he welcomed her in without another word.

Taking off her shoes, she calmly marched into the living room sofa and turned on the tv.

What he did next however, was to take the controller and turn said tv off.

Frowning but not yet dispirited, she picked up another remote from the table and was about to turn Len’s second unnecessary tv on with a challenging look towards him.

With a perfectly serene expression on his face, the bastard made to snatch said second controller from her hand but this time she was prepared for war and leaned back so that he had to _really_ stretch for it.

“Rin, give me the remote,” he commanded.

“Why?” she asked purely in confusion. _What is with him? Does he want to ‘talk’ about it? HA! What a joke!_

“I didn’t want to use it again but you leave me no choice, love,” was the only warning she got before he jabbed at her side and she screeched uncontrollably, the remote released from her hand and crashing onto the floor with a loud unpleasant clap of plastic on granite.

“WHAT THE FUCK!”

“No! don’t give me any of that again, seriously!”

She froze. It was the first time she had heard him raise his voice, and she did not like it. It was booming and loud, almost animalistic, making the hair stand up on the back of her neck.

“Start talking Kagamine. That is, before you collapse and die, if you may.”

Her throat clenched. She was frozen in place, in his gaze.

Len’s eyes were now wide and pleading, his voice no longer loud at all, but rather small. “Please, talk to me. Rin you have no idea how much I need you by my side but not like that, not if you’re suffering so much… Is it because of what I am? Are you so frightened that you can’t sleep or eat?”

She almost laughed out loud. Frightened of him? She could kill him any moment and he wouldn’t even see it coming. Hell, he would probably rejoice and let her do him in even if he did know.

No, she wasn’t frightened of him. It was the guilt that was killing her slowly. Images of Meiko killing her parents were flashing nonstop behind her closed eyelids and eating at her soul bit by bit. How could she ever explain something like that to him?

Tears were welling up in her eyes before she even knew it. Red was flashing in front of her eyes again. Meiko’s hair. Meiko’s dress. Blood.

She broke into sobs and fell into his chest where he held her.

“Please… tell me.”

“Len-“ she tried squeezing in the words between broken sobs. “My parents- they- they- were killed,” she could feel his muscles locking and his body turn rigid under her. He must have realized.

“No.” he whispered, barely audible.

“Yes!” she screamed out. She was on a roll now. “A vampire! A vam- k- killed them – I – I saw it all- I was TEN!”

“Michelle and Jacob?” he asked, almost in fear.

“Hunters…”

“Vampire hunters.” He said, without real question in his voice.

She nodded into his chest despite knowing he won’t hear or see it. But he already knew.

“Then why? _Why_ didn’t you kill me? Or turn me in.” his voice was verging on hysterics now, he was almost laughing.

She leaned back to look him in the eyes when she said, “I don’t know. Honest, I don’t. I just- look at you and I feel what I feel about you and I can’t bring myself to. And it’s eating at me! I feel so _guilty_ for my poor mom and dad! I wish I died, honest!”

His eyes flashed in anger. Abruptly he stood up, dragging her up standing with him as he started walking towards the door.

Resisting with what little power she had she squeaked out “wh-where are we going?”

“To Michelle and Jacob, so that they kill me, and you can make peace with yourself.” He wasn’t looking at her but something in the determination of his voice crushed her and her legs fell from under her.

“Stop.” She whispered from the floor. He wouldn’t turn to look at her. “Please, stop. Len, I don’t want you to die.”

His shoulders were shaking. “Rin.” He turned to look at her and there were real tears in his eyes. “I have killed before. I didn’t kill your parents but I killed other people. I can’t take that back and it’s been eating at me as well.”

She nodded wetly from the floor. “I know. I know that…”

“But one thing I can tell you for sure is that I will never kill again, and that is because of you.”

The huntress’ heart clenched. She reached out a hand for him to take, and hesitantly he did, sinking into the floor and into her embrace.

“I want you by my side too, Len.”

He chuckled shudderingly, “then please stop acting stupid. Eat something.”

~ ~ ~

It was 2 am. Len was sitting on the edge of his bed by Rin’s sleeping form, stroking her hair tenderly.

She started moving very restlessly when a single word left her lips.

“Meiko.”

He froze. Time seemed to move in a million different paces all at once. Then his body hit the floor.


	13. Chapter 13

“Len, I want you to meet your the new mother,” his father said proudly, standing in front of him next to a tall woman.

It was late Saturday morning and the weather was fair. Len was sitting in the garden, picking at grass in boredom. _What a lazy day…_

His father was gone before he woke up, on his way to bring him a ‘surprise’, but Len wasn’t too excited. He was already 12, after all, and nothing could excite him too much, he wasn’t a _child._

But what was this in front of him now?

In the face of his silence, the tall woman bowed graciously and smiled coolly, introducing herself, “I’m Meiko, it’s nice to meet you, Len.”

Shivers broke all over his bare arms for no apparent reason at the toothy smile the attractive woman had shot his way. He didn’t really get why, she looked normal enough. Long red hair, styled in an elaborate braid and an expensive-looking dress, her skin very pale and smooth. So much so that it was unnerving, in fact…

Len frowned. “I don’t need a new mother. I didn’t ask for one.”

His father’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance. “Come now, son, everyone needs a mother,” he said while wrapping an arm around the strange woman’s shoulder.

_Oh. It’s not for me at all._

The two of them looked rather pleased about themselves, all tailored outfits and stylish hairs. His father was happier than he’d seen him in forever, standing very tall and bright-eyed, like he got quite the catch; yes, she was a beautiful woman but something about her gave him the creeps.

He scowled. “I don’t need one. Mine was good enough.”

His father sighed. “Get inside, Meiko, I’ll talk to him alone some.”

She smiled politely and departed, leaving his father standing there cross-armed, looking down at him. Len ignored him petulantly.

“What is your problem, Len? Can’t you see she’s a very nice lady? Why are you being difficult?”

“I don’t care how nice she is, she’s not mom,” he scowled at him. “Don’t try pretending she is.”

His father’s face was reddening. “It’s been _five_ years. She might not be your mom now but she darn will be soon and you better not make life hard for her.”

The subject was dropped and the red haired woman just like that stepped into his life.

~ ~ ~

That day at noon a fancy-looking carriage brought a big suitcase and then Meiko was officially living with them. To Len’s disdain she was sleeping with his father in his bedroom chamber, where he could imagine was his mother’s side of the bed. A few days after was the wedding, extravagant and populous, obviously.

She sat with them around the table while they ate, not touching anything to her lips. She claimed to have a rare stomach problem she preferred not to discuss and his father listened intently as she moaned. Len always found it peculiar. He never once saw her eat in all 5 years she had ended up staying with them.

What was worst was how she would look at him sometimes, when he was eating. Her gaze was hungry, her red eyes shining in a somewhat… violent way. He would often lose his appetite the first year. During the 4 after however, something in those eyes had changed; they turned from hungry violence to soft melancholy whenever they fell upon the food in his plate. It made him lose his appetite for something entirely different- Len would turn too sad. Something in her large expressive eyes made something in his soul ache very badly for her.

The first year when the lady brushed past him in the hallway, he avoided her cool stare which never failed to leave trails of goosebumps where those sharp eyes had passed. Her smile was fake and cutting at the edges; how his father failed to see it killed him. It probably had something to do with how fleshy and full those red lips were. Always blood-red. His father loved those lips. During the 4 after however, something in those lips had changed; the corners were always tugged downwards at the sides whenever she had had to bend her head down to look at him. He was so much shorter than her then, a child. All innocence and youth. Her eyes were warm then, in contrast to the cold hand that would sometimes not resist the urge to caress his hair in an almost motherly way. They turned even sadder as he grew taller than that, and eventually taller than her.

The first year when the lady stood next to his proud father, Len’s heart was seized by a brutal storm. She was unfairly beautiful. Meiko was slim, so tall, her figure so well-defined and her manicured hands always polished and clad in expensive jewelry. Her eyes large saucers, just like a soul reflected, and a pristine beauty mark next to her eye.

Thanks to that, his father used to look at her like she hung the sun herself every morning just so it could shine for him. She, On the other hand, used to look all over the place while talking to him, never directly into his eyes, as if everything mattered much more.

It was the biggest difference, that one, in the following 4 years. It was as if one day, Meiko saw him for the first time. Really saw.

Then, when he held her hand her eyes were wide and she would keep sneaking disbelieving glances at their linked palms. At night she would sing, sad melodies in a hypnotizing voice speaking of love and wars that he couldn’t recognize to be any of the music he had ever heard. His father sometimes sat listening and stealthily wiping away wayward tears.

They would then stare at each other without saying a word, and even kiss once, long and tenderly. The last four years she looked at his father with love in her eyes.

After a while Len had no choice but to accept her, and even love her. She made his father happier, their garden greener, and their evenings more joyful. She taught Len how to tend to the garden and which roses to pick for a girl he had wanted to charm. Meiko had joined his father in his business and overnight doubled their sales and profit. For 4 years Meiko was everything.

For 4 years Meiko was the life of his father, and almost Len’s as well. Only when she _really_ hugged him for the first time had he realized how badly he longed for a mother’s loving embrace. And so he let himself need her; love her.

~ ~ ~

Sometimes, when Meiko left for one of her private errands, she came back looking a little scary.

Her expression was haunted and her focus was way off for a good few hours. She immediately went to take a shower, making it insanely long, while leaving behind a whiff of a scent ghastly and startling.

Neither Len nor his father have ever had the sense to question it for her tightlipped manner about her private affairs. It was just another one of those eccentricities of her that made her who she was, for better or worse.

It was one of _those_ days. Meiko had lived with them as his father’s wife for 5 years then. Len was 17. A brilliant student with charms and wit unparalleled. His handsome father was married to a fair wife one could only dream about having. They were the image of the perfect family, and so they turned a blind eye to Meiko’s inner tumult. They ignored all too well everything that was less than ideal.

The hour was nearing midnight and Len was already in bed, teetering on the edges of sleep when there was a soft rap on his door.

He sat up straight in bed. His father has been sleeping for a good while now, knocked out by a couple of whiskey glasses. Meiko has been out for the entire day, doing god knows what. “Come in.”

And there she was, surprisingly, entering his room. The smell ensued and Len tried not choking visibly. _Why did she come here before showering?_

To his horror she sat herself next to his pillow, gazing down at him, and he could hear something wet dripping to the floor. He was too frightened to look her in the eyes, already aware of the ghost look they took on after one of _those_ days, but he could not resist the pull, like the morbid fascination one has with a horrible accident.

Immediately he regretted it. She was staring at him intently, which was eerie enough on its own, except for her eyes. They weren’t red tonight. They were glinting in the dark room in a warm golden hue. They weren’t human eyes; they were a lion’s.

“Len…” his muscles locked. He felt paralyzed, his eyes still fixed to hers with his body covered under a blanket that could not cover enough. “Do you ever think about how… fragile… you are?”

Her voice was silk and far away, as if she was really talking to herself.

She continued without waiting for an answer. “You can die so easily… _so_ easily. Don’t you think eternal life is better?”

He didn’t know how to respond. The room was as silent as a cemetery apart from the occasional sound of the wetness that kept pooling on his floor where her legs lay. _Drip. Drip. Drip._

“No, I don’t think that,” he croaked when he found his lost voice.

Her eyes flashed in anger and zeroed in on him. “You think it’s better to die?”

“I think… Life is lived to the utmost when one is aware he’s going to die one of these days.”

She gripped his arm in an iron clad hold. “Explain.”

He gulped, trying to collect his again lost composure. “I mean; Pain, as great as it may be, is short lived. And joy is sweeter for you know how precious it is.” His voice turned wistful as he kept twisting it over in his head. “If you’re immortal everyone wilts and dies around you. I can’t imagine how lonely it must feel.”

She was silent. When he dared look his breath stopped; Meiko was crying, silently but steadily.

He waveringly put a comforting hand around her shoulder.

“Len. I love him. I really love him.”

He nodded, still awkwardly petting her back. “I know.”

“Am I allowed to love him?” He didn’t know what to say to that. Alarm bells were ringing everywhere and he was starting to feel like this was just a bad dream. She turned to take both his shoulders and shake. “Please. Answer.”

He only nodded wordlessly, wishing she would leave.

A smile broke over her lips and she sighed in relief. “ _Thank_ you. Thank you, really. You’re a smart boy Len.” Her hand moved to comb his curls in a way he used to secretly like but now it felt all wrong. “You grew up right before my eyes. I can’t believe you’re taller than me now! Such a fine young man, for real.”

This talk was pulling at very odd directions already, Len’s head was beginning to spin. “Th-thank you ma’am.”

Meiko ended up staying next to him and humming for what felt like a million years but must have only been two hours or so. Len was sitting rigidly, scared out of his mind as the odor only got worse. When she finally left he got up on shaky knees to light a candle to the now impressive pool at the foot of his bed. It was thick and red, red just like everything about her.

His mind went back to the sentence mumbled through her lips just before she left the room. “You’re a smart boy.”

~ ~ ~

Three days have passed. It was Meiko and his father’s fifth anniversary. Her words whispered in the darkness echoed in his mind ever since that night. Whenever their eyes would meet Len imagined them turning into gold and blinked excessively. His chest tightened whenever she would hold his father, something she had decided to do abundantly, as if on purpose.

The past three days she’d turned so needy for his touch it was almost uncomfortable to look at. His father visibly enjoyed the rapt attention; the lingering touches, the random kisses on his lips, eyes, cheeks, hands. If it seemed odd for him he chose to remain silent and bask in it.

“Do you love me?” she would ask in between lulls in conversation.

“Of course, my love,” he always reassured.

“No matter what?”

“No matter what.”

_NO!_ Len wanted to scream but his throat constricted. _Don’t promise that!_

It was night. They had celebrated their anniversary by a romantic lunch outside to which Len was not invited. They came back late, flushed and happy, their laughter loud and reverberating from the pathway outside.

From the window Len looked at his father’s face; his cheeks were healthily red and his blue eyes shining and crinkling in the sides. His blond beard was trimmed meticulously by what he knew was Meiko’s skilled hand, as was his styled hair. He looked good, very good.

For a moment Len was tempted to just let it go. Everyone had skeletons in their closets. Even if Meiko’s were drenched in blood, would it be too awful to… turn a blind eye? To keep pretending?

The sun was setting. As soon as they entered they climbed upstairs to their bedroom, not lingering downstairs apart from a short greeting to Len. He stayed put near the window, looking at the changing sky. He loved the twilight hour, when the sky looked like a rich palette of pinks and oranges. Just under them was a darker shade. Red. He shivered.

A blood curdling scream cut the air and Len almost fell form the couch from shock. It wasn’t a woman’s scream, it had deep undertones, clearly a man’s. His father was screaming. He had never heard that sound in his life.

Without thinking, his legs carried him upstairs, skipping steps and pushing the door open with all his might, then immediately stilling.

His father was standing pressed against the far wall, as if trying to become one with it to no avail. Meiko wasn’t far away but she was kneeling on the floor. As soon as he looked at her he had to hold in a scream of fright of his own; Meiko’s mouth… it was slightly parted, showing a pair of long, needle thin…. _fangs_.

Len felt his world collapsing around him, and not for the logical reasons; it was because somewhere inside him, he realized now that he knew all along. And not just three nights ago, but maybe even from the moments he first looked at her, that feeling he got right there. This could all have been prevented if only he'd opened his goddamn mouth. They were both going to die, all because of his ignorance.

Meiko was crying profusely, where his father was deathly pale, his eyes burning with an awful, ugly emotion. Pure hatred and disgust.

“Charles,” she sobbed. “I love you!”

His father snarled. “Are such monsters even capable of feeling?”

She crawled to grasp at his feet and he tried kicking her hands away without success. Meiko was too strong; noticing that, the disgust on his face grew worse.

“I am. Look at me! I love you from the bottom of my heart! What difference would it make? Nothing will change, it can all stay the same!”

“Let me GO!” he bellowed, panic rising in his voice at her touch.

Her face contorted in unbelievable agony and she screeched, so loud that Len had to cover his ears. “YOU LIAR! LYING FIEND! YOU PROMISED!”

“LET GO!”

They were both screaming. Everything was so loud and terrifying, and the scariest thing Len knew was that they were both entirely at her mercy.

“You promised to love me! Just today you said- you said no matter what!”

“I meant that to my HUMAN wife, not to- to- some-“

She stood up, leveling her eyes with his and the words died in his throat. Sweat was beading at his temples and he visibly swallowed.

She smiled viciously. “What? Some- what? Finish the sentence.”

“C-creature.”

The air was standing. No one dared breathe. Slowly Meiko stepped back from his father and his shoulders relaxed slightly the more she was away from him. The vampire’s expression was unreadable, eerily blank.

“I didn’t think this would ever happen.” She said silently while turning to look at his father, still inching gradually backwards. “I loved you, I really did, Charles. You broke my heart, _shattered_ it.”

His father could only gape at her, his face tightening for a reason Len couldn’t comprehend.

That’s when he figured it. Meiko was walking backwards, towards _him_. His eyes widened in fear. “How about I break something of yours?”

Everything happened all at once. Len turned around, ready to bolt, when a hand grabbed his arm with monstrous force, dragging him back into the room and to kneel on the floor with his arm bent painfully behind his back. All the while his father was screaming, absolutely losing his mind.

Meiko’s manicured fingernails were trailing his pulse point and he froze. _This is really how it all ends._

His father threw himself on Meiko but she easily shoved him backwards and he crashed back into the wall with a sickening crunch.

“No!” Len yelled and tried getting up to help him, but was forcefully shoved back down.

“Hm… No, I shouldn’t kill him…” she as if mused out loud, in a tone cheerful and cutting. “I have a much much better idea.”

The pain was sudden and sharp but very short lived. Soon it was replaced by overwhelming calm, as he felt his consciousness drifting away. Vaguely he felt his head hit the floor and it rolled to the side.

His father was there, but it felt like he was oceans away. The side of his head was coated in red and his eyes were big and watery, as if he was crying, but what did he have to cry about? Nothing, when everything was so nice like that.

He felt warm. He was running into open arms and big grass green eyes were waiting, happy to welcome him in. He was so young.

Something wet and warm was in his mouth. It tasted very bad, like dirty iron and he tried spitting it out but couldn’t what with the angle his head was in, and gravity did its job.

As soon as he swallowed it he regretted the decision, though. A fire was building in his throat and rapidly spreading roots in his entire body. Len was burning. There was a fire inside of him, choking him, killing him. In the distance someone was screaming, loudly, agonized. It took him a while to realize it was coming from his own torn throat.

There was another sound, too. Meiko was laughing shrilly, enjoying the scene but he was in too much pain to move a single muscle, to even breathe.

Before he fainted from pain and the world darkened once, or forever, he could just make out Meiko’s shape leaving the room, still laughing.

“See how you could love a creature…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there went the climax!  
> please, if you liked it, let me know :) if anyone wants to talk to me in private my tumblr is https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ive-been-winchesterd


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some angst at first but finally some well deserved domestic fluff

Rin straightened up in bed, shaken out of sleep at the abrupt loud noise- which after a closer look turned out to be the impact of Len’s skull with the floor.

The room was filled with moaning sounds, aching and pained- the blond was writhing on the floor with what appeared to be unbearable agony.

While rushing over to his side, a quick glance at the clock showed her it was 2:48 am.

The vampire was for some reason lying on the cold marble floor, his eyes scrunched up tight- it was almost as if he was caught up in the vicious hold of a nightmare, but … that couldn’t be; vampires didn’t sleep.

“Len,” Rin started warily, giving his shoulder a good shake; a loud yell tore out of his throat as his back arched upwards, voice as torn as if he were stabbed.

Still his eyes stayed shut. Rin was starting to panic, something was terribly wrong. Shaking him with more vigor, she tried, more urgently, “Le-“

Bright yellow eyes opened and sharp fangs hissed at the air, causing Rin to yelp out and fall back to the floor, scrambling to get away until her back hit the wall.

She half-expected him to lash out at her, to attack, to do _some_ thing, but, unexpectedly, the vampire curled into himself, hugging his knees to his chest, gasping for air;

Vampires also didn’t need to breathe.

“Len…” she whispered softly, still not daring to come nearer.

“It hurts,” he breathed out.

It was a very pitiful sight. Len looked so small, lying there curled in on himself, almost like he was a child again. She could make out in the dark a single tear rolling out of his eye and hitting the floor. That’s when she realized he was not posing any danger.

The blonde crawled on her knees back to his side and took his hands in both of hers, trying to pry them away from around his knees. She figured that the pain he was feeling must have been mentally-inflicted, considering no one could have hurt him physically in the few hours she had been asleep for. There were no cuts or bruises visible on his mostly bare skin. _And he was sleeping?_

His hands came into hers effortlessly and she laced their fingers together, trying to get his body to open out.

“No…” he only whispered without real fight, powerless, like all energy had left his body.

“Open your eyes, Len, look where you are.”

Then, slowly, he did. They were a beautiful blue again, glassy and wide, staring up at her. Letting go of one hand, she used her thumb to wipe away a stray tear and shushed at him soothingly.

“Rin?”

She nodded. “Yea, it’s me. Len, you were-“ she frowned-“ … sleeping.”

His brows pulled in together. “I don’t sleep.”

The blonde rolled her eyes. “I know.”

Slowly, he rose to sit, clutching his head. “I must have blacked out or something. Meiko…”

Everything came to a halt- all sound, all movement, she could have sworn her heart had stopped as well. It has been nine years since she had heard that name spoken into the air.

Red swam in her field of vision and before knowing it she aggressively shoved his hand away from her. _Why would_ he, _out of everyone mention her?_

_Were they friends? Were they… Lovers?_

He frowned at the sharp movement, his eyes too shrouded in innocent confusion for the word he had uttered only a moment ago and the pain and blood it had carried into the atmosphere. “Rin?”

“Who is she to you? Why d’you say that?”

His frown deepened. “ _You_ did. When you were sleeping.”

It didn’t make any sense, so what if she did? “That doesn’t answer, what’s it to _you?”_

The vampire’s frown morphed into a scowl. “Will you get that fighting stance off?” Standing up to tower over her on the floor, he continued harshly, “I’m guessing you’re carrying some emotional weight she’s scarred you with, but you’re not the only one.” Rin lowered her eyes, too angry and distracted to look at him properly. “She ruined my life. She is the one who turned me.”

That definitely caused her to snap into attention. Standing up, her eyes were wide for various reasons. She chose only to comment on the more pressing issue; “You can’t _suddenly remember_ who turned you. The stress caused by the pain of the transformation triggers a major blackout.”

Len sat down at the edge of his bed and reluctantly, feeling way to anxious and filled with adrenaline to rest, Rin sat herself next to him.

“You were moving around when you were sleeping, and then suddenly when you said that name… I don’t know what happened but I was suddenly a kid again, and I was _there_ , in that room where it all happened… I remember everything.” He looked at her, eyes filled with emotion. “I remember the name of my dad, and my mother, but also the moment Meiko changed me.”

Rin could only stare as Len delved into his story, her heart aching inexplicably. Meiko almost sounded human. She almost felt sorry for her at times. But whenever that sliver of compassion threatened to arise the huntress had slashed at it desperately with the cutting edges of the bloody images curved into her eyelids for the rest of her life.

Thoughts were spiraling in the huntress’ mind.

_Could Meiko have been good if only she were loved despite of what she was?_

_How many lives had she torn to shreds with bare fingers, to get over the pain and self-hatred she was drowning in?_

_Len and I ended up having more in common than maybe any of us would have ever wanted. But that only brought us closer, and stronger together. It connected us in the way war brings comrades together once they come out of it at last._

~ ~ ~

“Please, Miku, just let me through,” Rin was close to whining at her blue-haired friend blocking her path with her arms crossed and a glare that meant business.

It was almost time for their Tuesday noon class, and Rin had to pass through her dorm room to change out of her clothes and get the necessary books. What she didn’t expect though was to have Miku as a physical barrier, waiting at the door as if sensing her near arrival.

“You know, Rin, I don’t care even if we have to miss class altogether, you’re not getting out of here before you explain yourself so well that I’m so satisfied it’s like Christmas came early.” Rin sighed mentally. She was not even nearly on enough hours of sleep to deal with conflict, after last night.

“You’re right you’re right, you’ve been neglected. Tell you what,” She said while swinging an arm around her friend’s shoulders and dragged her into the room. Miku all the while stayed pouting and looking skeptical. “I’ll tell you everything while dressing up, how about that?”

They ended up spending the next hour or so just lounging close together in their dorm room, class forgotten for good, with Rin spilling her heart out to the best of her abilities without revealing anything of risk.

She reassured Miku how Len was really good for her and how she was in such a sorry state yesterday because she couldn’t stop thinking about her parents who’d died, but Len was there for her (which was a half-truth really, Miku didn’t need to know how those thoughts came about because of said not-vampire).

After making up the conversation steered to light-hearted banter, and recalling of stories, and that really warmed up Rin’s soul. Only now did she really realize how long it’s been since the two of them sat together like that, with no hard feelings or heavy clouds weighing down on her mind. She loved Miku, and she loved the side of herself that her friend so easily brought out of her. As if she was just a normal college girl whose worst issue was the mark she’d get for the next exam.

~ ~ ~

“What do you mean the little pipsqueak is coming to your house?” Len’s face was astonished.

Rin couldn’t help but giggle. “Are you jealous of a 16 year old, boy big guy?”

It was Thursday afternoon and Rin and Len were hanging out in campus. She was nursing a cup of iced coffee he had gentlemanly paid for as they were sitting close together on one of the benches in the gardens.

The last three days passed by in good spirits, and the weekend was fast approaching. Michelle and Jacob left yesterday to Eastern Europe where a contact of theirs told of a rumor people were going missing and strange noises were coming out every week from the ruins of an old castle, or so went the message they had left in her voicemail.

Their absence once again had made it a lot easier to breathe.

Tomorrow, Friday, she’d be working again and she was kind of excited to go back to what she was good at and to see her friends from work again. Last night she had remembered her promise to Oliver about helping him with his Math and called him up inviting him to come over Saturday morning before their shift. The boy had been ecstatic, probably not really believing she’d go through with her offer.

“I’m not jealous, I just don’t like you being alone with him in your home,” he said petulantly and her eyebrows raised in amusement.

“I don’t think you know what jealous means. Have you ever been jealous?”

The vampire scowled with no real heat, which made him just look like an angry kid whose skateboard was confiscated. Rin could barely stop herself from pinching his cheeks and pulling.

“Of course I haven’t been jealous, no one is better looking than me, or smarter, or funny, a-“

“Or humble. Or as _jealous_ right now,” Rin joked, taking the last sip of her drink and sucking air through the straw just for the hell of it, as if the drink would refill itself- her life was supernatural enough that had it happened she’d only be like, 90% surprised.

“But that’s where you’re wrong, it’s not like I’m jealous- I’m worried about you. He’s still a guy, and no one will be around to help if, you know…”

Rin’s eyes almost rolled into the back of her head. “He’s about my height Len. Oh he’s definitely a 165 cm of malicious intent. A ball of evil who’s failing math and cried a little when he told me about it.”

“So that’s settled, can I come?”

“Len!”

He pouted and laid his head back. “So tomorrow I’ll pick you up from work and we’ll go to your place and I’ll leave in the morning.”

Looking away she pondered his words. He wanted to spend the night in her house, which wasn’t so bizarre considering she had stayed in his many times now. Michelle and Jacob were in another continent so it obviously shouldn’t have worried her, but for some reason it did. As if his traces of his presence will linger and as soon as they’ll get home they will just know.

“Rin?”

He was looking at her, waiting for an answer. The sun was setting and the orange light cast on his face made the small spattering of freckles on his nose more visible and a gentle wind ruffled his hair. He was hers. She smiled and nodded.

~ ~ ~

It was rush hour and everyone in the staff was running around. Even Neru who usually only watched, was taking orders. Friday nights were always on the busy side. It was 8 pm which made it only two more hours until closing time.

Rin arrived at the bar and started piling up drinks on her tray. “Are you holding up?” Gakupo, the bartender, leaned on the bar and asked.

She sighed, smiling. “I believe I do, yea, so far no glasses cracked.”

He laughed, shaking his head, “I really hope the devil didn’t hear you now.”

She smiled and turned to leave with the tray but he caught her arm, saying “wait.”

She rolled her eyes before turning. Gakupo was 25 years old and trying again for college after the first time around he hadn’t passed almost any of his classes. Ever since Rin had started working there he hit on her on almost a weekly basis and she always rejected him politely, but the guy just wouldn’t give up. She already knew the build-up tone to _that_ , so she turned around already knowing exactly what would follow.

“I was thinking, when our shift ends you and I can-” he stopped and his eyes fixated on something beyond her shoulder.

The weight of the tray started straining on her right hand so she decided to shake him off for now. There wasn’t a set time per se for being rejected, she’d figured, muttering an “I’ll go now,” and turning around-

-to immediately halt at the sight of a wide chest and yelp out “AH!” as the drinks almost spilled all over her. The tray was balancing precariously and she brought up her second hand in immense effort not to break about 10 glasses of juices and coffee.

When everything finally lay still thanks to nothing short of a miracle, she cursed out loud “what the fuck!” and brought her eyes up to properly see the offender. “Len?”

He wasn’t looking at her though, his blue eyes were icy, staring at Gakupo almost with murderous intent. “Was there something you wanted to say to her?”

Len as usual, had the gift of capturing absolutely everyone’s undivided attention. If there was ever a deadly car accident on one side of the street while Len was passing the street somewhere ahead, Rin had no doubt where everyone’s eyes would be drawn. Obviously a lot of it had to do with what he was, but part of her knew it must have always been like this to some extent, even before.

That’s why, upon looking around the room, trapped between his chest and the bar, she could see almost all eyes in the café fixed on the scene Len was stirring.

“And if there was what’s it to you?” Gakupo straightened up and shot back, obviously reading the situation as well as he read the material for his finals.

“Len, let it go, he-“ she started but his mouth on hers swallowed her response. The kiss was short but possessive in a way that made her toes curl. Almost animalistic in the way he managed to convey to everyone watching that she wasn’t free.

“That answer your question?”

_God he’s such a drama queen._ Rin’s face felt so hot, she was certain she’d looked it as well. Deciding she was no longer needed for the rest of their man-scene, Rin slipped away with her head down from between them to shyly hand out the drinks on the tray, then entered the back room to fish for an ice pack for her flaming face.

She found a bag of frozen peas and buried her face in it until Neru hugged her from behind and whispered in her ear “I understand how you might feel, but if you don’t come out and get back to helping, you’re going to be massaging my feet all night long.”

When she got back out everything seemed to be back to normal. A quick scanning of the room showed Gakupo noticing her and not meeting her eye, Oliver clearing up an empty table and Len sitting in one of the high tables in the back, messing around on his phone.

There were less people in the shop now than there had been but her help was still needed so she couldn’t linger for long, she knew, but her legs pulled her towards him. Something in the way he behaved made her feel warm to her bones, she had to admit it wasn’t a bad feeling, being jealous over.

“Len… about before,” he looked up at her, his face guarded. Maybe he thought she’d be mad? “I liked it,” she smiled and felt herself blushing again. His face relaxed. “But you do know that I wouldn’t have said yes, right? To anyone else, not just him. Your jealousy is uncalled for.”

He smiled sheepishly. “I know. But it’s hard seeing the way people look at you, I just can’t help but show them once in a while,” he admitted, scratching his neck. 

She giggled and pecked him on the cheek. “I’ll get back to working now.”

She didn’t ever understand people who were jealous. Trust should be something fundamental in a relationship, she’d always believed- which left no place for things like that. That, at least was until about 9:30 pm, Friday the 3rd of January, 2020.

Len was sticking out like a sore thumb, all gorgeous and sitting alone in a moderately busy café on a weekend night. This drew even more attention than Rin had expected. The occasional brave group of girls would try joining his table, but he’d decline uninterestedly and dejected, they all left.

And then there were these two girls, those darn two girls…

The café steadily emptied out the closer to 10 it had got, and now half an hour before closing calm has returned to the staff’s joy. Rin was in the middle of taking an order from an old couple when it happened.

Len seemed bored out of his mind; phone forgotten on the table, he stared forward into nothingness, which was probably what prompted the blonde and brunette friends to be so bold.

They looked like high schoolers, maybe 12th graders. The brunette sat herself down in the chair next to him and the blonde in front, and they leaned forward suggestively, revealing more bosom than appropriate for a neighborhood café.

Len’s eyes immediately locked with Rin’s intense gaze, who now completely ignored the old couple speaking to her and resorted to openly stare at her boyfriend’s assaulters.

Rin was not a jealous person, jealousy was silly and narrow-minded. And the brunette grabbed Len’s arm and hugged it to her chest, giggling, and _this bitch needs to go down._

She laid the tray down on a nearby empty table and walked purposefully toward them, her fingers were prickling with energy, it scared her how she felt like hitting those teenage girls. Len was working on wriggling his arm free of her vicelike grip when he noticed her in all her glorious fury.

What he saw must have been quite a sight considering a second after, to the girls’ confusion, he burst in a hysteric fit of laughter so hard he had to cover his mouth with his free hand.

This only infuriated Rin more- did he think this was a _joke?_ She grabbed the brunette’s shoulder hard enough to bruise, and the latter scowled and let out a snappish “what the fuck? What do you think you’re doing?”

Rin got all in her face, seething, “I think the gentleman wished that you’d leave, you’re making a precious customer uncomfortable.”

The blonde retaliated, “I think he’s capable of telling it to us himself.”

Len chuckled, having calmed down, “I did though.”

The brunet tightened her hold on him, “you’re just acting shy, aren’t you? Right?”

Rin had about had it by now, watching Len’s arm squeezed against this minor’s tits. _This girl needs to go to church,_ thought Rin, which was a real feat, considering she never did herself. But god’s intervention was needed with this one for real.

She didn’t want to resort to violence but obviously she was left with no choice in the matter right? She pried the hand holding Len off and pulled the girl to standing position, bringing her arm behind her and pushing her down to the table. She was breathing hard now, her arm close to breaking point. “Don’t make me repeat myself, it’s impolite,” she faked sweetness. “Now the both of you, go sit somewhere else, or scram, I don’t care which.”

She held the position, staring the blonde in the eyes for a few seconds longer, to let it sink, then let go.

The brunette straightened quickly and nursed her arm to her chest, her face red and eyes wet. Not sparing her another glance, both girls left the shop in a hurry, cursing under their breath.

Len was still cackling, the bastard. “Love, that jealousy now was uncalled for,” he said, reaching a hand for her, but she shook it off and shot him a scowl holding all of the anger she still had left in her.

“Shut. Up.”

Trying to even her breath, she returned to the shocked couple she was previously working with, picking the tray back up. “I’m sorry for the delay, what will you have?”

A conclusive “never bring him here again when you’re working,” from Neru at the end of her shift let Rin know she was officially a jealous girlfriend.


End file.
